by C. J. Miller
“What about you? Did your accommodations put Alexandra in a good mood? The villa you are staying in has one of the best views on the island.”
The villa and the setting did nothing to warm Hyde. She was still freezing him out. Finn didn’t think she was angry. She wanted space. For spies, that wasn’t unusual. Being aloof was a way to stay safe. He and Hyde hadn’t been distant with each other in the past and that was what made it hard for him. “She was asleep when I returned to the villa.” The lie was easier.
Barnett was looking for a masculinity-measuring contest and Finn preferred details of his personal life remain private. Even fictionalizing details about him and Hyde in the bedroom made him uncomfortable. Given his penchant for winning, better for Barnett to believe he was the superior man in bed. It didn’t matter to Finn. He wanted to work things out with Hyde, but not because he was in competition with someone.
They drove one of the golf carts to the spa. Finn spotted Hyde and Ruby lying poolside, each reading a magazine, frozen cocktails on a table between them, and sunglasses covering their eyes. Finn’s heart leaped to his throat. From this distance, Hyde took his breath away. They parked the golf cart and strode onto the pool deck.
Hyde waved as he approached, and he itched to touch her. Ruby greeted Barnett with a kiss and he reached to her rear end, squeezing and pulling her close.
“How was golf?” Hyde asked. She looked stunning in a bright yellow string bikini accenting her curves and the cut angles of her stomach and leg muscles. She appeared relaxed. She looked that way after great sex, too.
“Great views of the ocean,” Finn said.
Hyde set aside the magazine she was reading. It was a bridal magazine. Was it her pick or the only selection offered by Ruby? Hyde had mentioned wanting a husband and a family. How long had that been on her mind? She hadn’t mentioned it at their prior meetings. Was she putting distance between them because she knew that Finn would make the worst spouse and parent? For that reason, he had no intention of being either. He traveled too much and his plans changed week to week. He missed birthdays, anniversaries and holidays. He couldn’t put a wife or children through that.
His father was a politician. Finn had hated how often his dad had been pulled away on business. To subject his wife and children to that lifestyle struck Finn as unfair.
“I was planning to take a swim. Interested?” Hyde asked.
The water would feel great and distract him from obsessing about Hyde. “Let me get changed.”
Hyde stood and tossed her sunglasses on the lounge chair where she’d been sitting. “I don’t feel like waiting.” She grabbed his shirt and pulled him into the pool with her.
They came up laughing. Hyde delivered a wet kiss to his lips. “You have to be more spontaneous.”
Ruby and Barnett were watching them. Ruby looked like she was considering tossing Barnett in the pool and then thought better of it.
“I’m plenty spontaneous,” Finn said. He should be enjoying this, but it bothered him that this might be for show and nothing about her casual touch meaningful.
Hyde swam away from him. “Now do you want to change?”
“What did I do to deserve a dunk?” Finn asked. He wanted to discuss the golf game, but he couldn’t in front of Ruby.
Hyde shrugged. “You needed to cool down.” She brought her mouth close to his ear. “You looked like you wanted to stab Barnett.”
Had he? He thought he had been hiding his feelings well. “I was thinking about you.”
She leaned away from him, surprise registering on her face. “It’s me who you want to stab?”
Never. Hurting her wasn’t his objective. “I want to figure you out.”
Hyde pushed off him, diving under the water. She appeared in the deep end of the pool. Her long hair was slicked back and she looked positively gorgeous. He wanted to give chase, snag her and kiss her. He put a lid on his desire for her. If he gave her space, would she confide in him, and let their relationship resume on the path it had been before?
Barnett’s phone rang and he stepped a few yards away to take the call. When he returned, a frown pulled down the corners of his mouth.
“We have new suits in the pool house,” Barnett said. “I apologize, but something has come up that I need to attend to. Enjoy your day.” He put his phone to his ear and hurried away.
Ruby climbed into the pool and sat on the stairs. Her arms were wrapped around her midsection and her eyes cast downward at the water. Should he say anything? Finn didn’t know how Barnett would feel about him talking to Ruby. Best to leave that to Hyde.
Finn dragged himself out of the water and changed in the pool house. When he exited, Hyde was by the stairs, talking to Ruby. Hyde could be extracting valuable information from her. Finn sat on the lounge chair next to Hyde’s. He looked at the bridal magazine, a picture of a brunette bride glancing over her shoulder, a bouquet of pink puffed flowers at her side and the yellow pastel of the background glaring.
This was what Hyde wanted? A day in a white dress and a big party followed by years of commitment and obligations was no adventure. The life they had, the travel and the excitement, was far more fascinating.
Hyde strode to him and he set the magazine down, his cheeks flushing. He felt like he had been caught red-handed.
“Find something you like?” she asked.
Finn shook his head. “I don’t understand the whole idea of it.”
Ruby joined them, wrapping a towel around her waist. “You sound like Reed. He thinks marriage is a waste of time.”
Hyde made a sound of empathy. “Finn, too.”
Their cover dovetailed with reality. Finn kept his cool. Was Hyde angry about that? He hadn’t promised her anything he couldn’t deliver. He didn’t want to put down roots. He liked to travel and see new places. He couldn’t be tied to one person or one place forever. He had chosen his career because he loved adventure and challenges.
His father had been committed to his job and neglectful of his family. He’d had unrealistic expectations about the way his family should behave when they were together and no intention of putting in the time to make them a cohesive unit. Finn’s commitment to his job would mean ignoring his family. He couldn’t—wouldn’t—do that to anyone. Until he had met Hyde, he kept his affairs light and brief. Now that she was in his life, he wouldn’t become his father and try to maintain a commitment to her and his career. One would inevitably suffer and he’d lose the work he loved, or Hyde would grow to hate him. He couldn’t live with either outcome.
* * *
Ruby set her towel on the lounge chair and sat. “It would be nice to have my family and friends see that Reed is a good man. They know little about him, yet they have plenty of bad things to say.”
Hyde could understand why. Ruby seemed blind to how dangerous Barnett was. “How did you meet?” Hyde asked. An innocent question, but might tell her more about where Barnett traveled.
“In the south of France,” Ruby said and sighed. “I was working in a hotel as his chambermaid. I brought him towels and he asked me to stay the night with him. I could have been fired. I turned him down three times before I agreed to stay. I never left. Reed took me away from that job and has given me everything I could wish for.”
Not everything. Ruby wasn’t seeing the big picture or the opportunities that awaited her out from under Barnett’s thumb. “Sounds like a fairy tale,” Hyde said, trying to inject warmth into her words. She had developed a genuine affection for Ruby, and pretending to like Barnett and how he treated Ruby was becoming harder.
Ruby stared out across the pool. “He swept me off my feet and I fell for him fast. We’ve been together about three months. He’s been busy and it’s hard for him to find time for me. Whenever I ask to travel with him, he says it’s too dangerous.”
“Reed and
Finn want to protect us. When they get involved in things, we get pulled into them, too, and then they worry. That additional distraction could cost them,” Hyde said. Ruby might know something about Barnett’s work, and Hyde wanted to nudge it out of her.
Ruby sighed. “I get bored on the island. I know it seems picture-perfect and like I have an ideal life, but there’s no one to talk to.”
A beautiful bird in a gilded cage. Hyde didn’t envy her position. “I understand.”
“I hope when Finn and Reed are finished with their new project, he’ll have more time to spend with me.”
“I miss Finn when he works too much, too. It comes with the territory,” Hyde said. She tried to appear empathetic.
“How long have you and Finn been together?” Ruby asked.
“Almost three years,” Hyde said. That information had been documented in their operation notes. It was close to the real amount of time they had known each other. Over the three years, when they had been together, Hyde had felt like she was transported to another time and place.
“Wow. I’ve never had a relationship last that long. Maybe with Reed it will?” Ruby said. Ruby’s phone beeped and she jumped to her feet. She dried her hand on a towel before looking at her phone. “That’s Reed. I’ve got to go.”
Had Barnett been listening to their conversation? Was he worried about something that Ruby might say? Hyde waved goodbye and Ruby dashed off in the direction of the main house.
Finn climbed out of the pool, droplets of water running down his muscular form. He strode toward her, snagging a towel off the rack of clean, dry ones. “What was that about?” He sat on the end of a lounge chair.
Hyde joined him. “She was meeting Barnett. He snapped. She came running.” A situation she had seen far too often. She had been assigned an operation years before that reminded her of this one. Different dynamics, and in the other case, the boyfriend had been an assassin. He had used his girlfriend Rayna to provide his alibi. Perjuring herself, Rayna had sunk deeper into her boyfriend’s crimes. Hyde had warned Rayna that it wouldn’t end well. Hyde had tried to provide resources and offer her protection if she told the truth about her boyfriend’s murders. Rayna hadn’t listened. The boyfriend had killed her and dumped her body in a lake. They’d found it months later. It had broken Hyde’s heart. Until the body had been found, she had been hoping that Rayna had escaped.
Finn set a hand on her calf. “Take it easy. I know you don’t like the dynamics between them, but it will be okay.” He kept his voice low.
This was Hyde’s last mission. She wanted for once, just for once, for her experience to save someone before something bad happened. Too often, she had to pull someone out of the fire. Few heeded the warning when she smelled smoke.
Barnett could have video cameras anywhere. She and Finn kept their conversation to banal topics while they gathered their belongings. Once they were away from the pool and possible surveillance, they could speak frankly. They exited the pool area and decided to return to their villa on foot. The walk would give them time to talk. About the mission. Finn had hinted that he wanted to discuss their relationship, but Hyde was still collecting her thoughts on that. Focusing on what she wanted in the future was more important than delving into the past.
“Did you get anything from Barnett?” Hyde asked.
Finn slipped his arm over her shoulder. Hyde instinctively leaned toward him. While on this island, they had to appear and behave as lovers. Hyde hadn’t calculated how long it had been since they’d actually been lovers, but it was recent enough that those emotions, the intensity and the intimacy, still bowed between them.
“Barnett received two phone calls while we were golfing from someone he called Sydney,” Finn said. “They discussed meeting tonight. No mention as to why or where from what I heard.”
“Hard to pick a place. By the main house?” Hyde asked.
“We may hear the approach if it’s close to the main house,” Finn said. “I’ll call the West Company and see if they can reroute a satellite to do a flyover. We can look at the images and pinpoint possible places for a boat or chopper to land.”
“Maybe it’s a supplies delivery,” Hyde said, though she hoped Finn caught a lead into Barnett’s new endeavor.
“Perhaps. But Barnett wouldn’t need to be involved in routine supplies deliveries. He has about fifty employees who could handle that for him,” Finn said. He moved his arm from around her shoulder and took her hand in his.
At the steps leading to the villa’s porch, Finn brought her hand to his lips and kissed the back of it. Their eyes met and held. A swell of emotion billowed inside her. Hyde swallowed, thinking of all she should say to him and hadn’t.
The memory of being with him the last time simmered in her blood. When she opened her mouth to speak, the words wouldn’t form. She pulled her hand away and whirled around, fleeing into the villa.
“Want to talk about it?” Finn asked, following her inside.
She didn’t. Not yet. “We need to see if anything looks amiss.” Plus, exploring the island would prevent them from being alone in the villa. “I’ll be ready in a minute.” She changed into a sundress and donned a wide-brimmed hat, sunglasses and a gun strapped to her thigh. Finn changed into board shorts and a T-shirt.
They walked along the beach, close enough to hold hands, but not touching. The sand was hot and soft beneath her feet. The sound of the waves was the background to their conversation.
“When I retire, this is how I want to spend my days. Minus the interacting with a criminal part,” Finn said.
“I thought you didn’t want to retire,” Hyde said, surprised to hear Finn suggest slowing down. Most of the time, he spoke of the next mission, the latest gadget he had acquired for said mission or the exciting new place he was working.
“I can’t do this work forever. Enough injuries and I’ll be out of the game or I’ll get slow. A newer, sharper guy will come along and show me up and take my jobs,” he said.
“New guys don’t have experience,” Hyde said. Experience had gotten her through difficult situations. Agents who had been in the field longer than she had saved her life on more than one occasion.
“Experience slows me down. I know what can happen. If I stop and think about the consequences for too long, opportunities pass me by. Pretty soon, no operation seems worth it when looking at the risks.”
Hyde brushed away a strand of hair that had blown across her face. “That’s what I’m afraid of, too.” Except she wasn’t afraid of losing jobs or operations. She was terrified of waking up one day, her career over, and her life hollow and empty.
She felt his gaze on her. Did he finally understand why she’d retired? When Finn looked at her, a thrill skittered over her. With their backgrounds, they had understood each other and the life they led. Only recently had she felt disconnected from him when she’d realized she wanted something else for her life.
“Until I can’t do this work anymore, either physically or mentally, I’ll stop as many bad guys as I can,” Finn said.
Hyde wouldn’t get him to see the advantages of changing his plans. It depressed her to know that after this mission, they wouldn’t have a reason to see each other. She would find stability, he would chase the next mission and they would drift apart.
Though the sun was relentless and hot, as they walked back to their villa, Hyde felt ice-cold.
Chapter 5
Hyde had to cover some distance to watch the shoreline. Her phone was connected to a satellite feed that was monitoring the area. Moving back and forth along the beach, it would be easier to spot approaching boat lights in the dark. Without a dock, any ship of large mass would need to stay offshore and send a smaller boat to reach land.
Finn would message her if Barnett excused himself or indicated he had a problem. If Barnett was meeting with Syd
ney himself, Hyde would have warning and hopefully be close enough to capture the interaction on her camera.
Every terrain presented challenges, but Hyde hated the bugs and nocturnal predators that came with tropical island life. Too many hazardous surprises lurked.
She was wearing head-to-toe black and had coated her skin with bug spray. The temperature would drop over the course of the night and she would be more comfortable when it was cooler. She could be watching for hours.
Moving through the trees, she estimated about thirty yards of sand between her and the water. Despite the dark and unknown, it was serene sitting alone. Underscoring that sense of peace was the knowledge that Barnett had a plot afoot.
Hyde had a soft spot for protecting women in danger and when she thought of Ruby, she wished she could speak plainly about her loser lover and convince Ruby to leave him. It wasn’t the first time Hyde had met a beautiful woman who had clung to the first money that came by. The luxuries it afforded seemed great until the real cost was revealed.
Giving a man complete control was dangerous and in Ruby and Barnett’s relationship, Barnett dominated. He had control of the house, the money and the business. Did Ruby have any assets? She should set aside expensive gifts in case they needed to be pawned for cash.
If Ruby’s relationship with Barnett ended, if he didn’t kill her, would she feel like she could go home? Hyde couldn’t imagine feeling unwanted by her family. Her parents’ house in Montana had remained a soft place to land. It was part of the reason Hyde hadn’t worried about the future. If a situation got too hot, she could bail and go home. How did Finn cope? He didn’t have a place to call home and his family issues seemed to extend to more than annoyances.
Hyde caught sight of lights across the water. Her heart rate escalated and her adrenaline fired. Controlling her muscles, she took slow, deep breaths. She waited and watched. It took twenty minutes before a dinghy came into view, moving toward the shore. A lantern was hanging from a post on the back of it, providing her a shadowy view. The moon was bright, but at the wrong angle to illuminate the faces of the arrivals.