Reaching a hand down to steady herself against the mahogany desk, Josslyn drew in a shaky breath. Adam was across the room in four long strides. He gathered her up in his arms before she lost her balance.
“Shh,” he soothed. “We’re going to figure this out.”
She leaned into him, holding on as though they were still treading water in the dark ocean. Adam brushed his lips over her silky hair. Why was it that he only had two settings with this woman—throttle her or kiss her?
“I know you think I’m impetuous,” she murmured against his chest. “But someone has to speak for the animals. At the rate the poachers are killing them, the African elephant will be extinct in a decade.”
Impetuous didn’t even begin to describe her. Still, deep down, he admired her for her convictions. She wasn’t one of those women whose beliefs shifted like a tree branch in the wind. Adam liked that about her. Hell, he liked a lot of things about her, especially the parts of her pressed up against him. He stroked a hand up and down her spine. They stood there for a long moment, locked in another inappropriate embrace. Except each time Adam touched Josslyn, it felt less and less inappropriate.
The sound of footsteps coming up the stairs forced Adam to reluctantly release her.
“Agent Lockett.” Josslyn was seated back on the piano bench when Director Worcester strode into the hall. “Our friends at the FBI may have something for us.”
“They’ve found Ngoni?” she asked.
The director looked at Adam questioningly.
“The boy,” Adam explained. “It seems his brother, Mandla, is the one following her. He’s involved with a crew of tribesmen that Miss Benoit and her friends at the GWC suspect are poachers. The little brother was going to rat them out.”
“Not suspect!” She jumped to her feet. “We have evidence. And this animal trafficking ring is one of, if not, the largest poaching organizations in the world. For your information, animal trafficking is nearly a twenty-billion-dollar-a-year business. Ivory brings in more money than gold, oil, or cocaine. These syndicates are very sophisticated. Many of them are the same gangs who deal in guns and narcotics. They have to be stopped.”
Her impassioned speech left her cheeks flushed and her breasts heaving. She was sexy as hell standing there defending her cause. Too bad the director didn’t see it that way.
“All the more reason you’ll be confined here at the White House until these men are apprehended,” he announced.
“What?” Her hands went to her hips as she glared at the director. “That’s not what I agreed to. Kindly allow me to remind you that I can decline Secret Service protection at any time.”
Never one to back down, the director kept his voice and his emotions even when he responded. “Allow me to remind you that I take my orders from the president of the United States and until such time as he instructs me to release you from your protective detail, I call the shots around here.”
Josslyn mumbled something that didn’t appear to be ladylike. “Fine. Then double my detail. Triple it. But I need to be at the zoo this week. Zara has already begun doing her estrous walk. Dax will be pawing at the barn door tomorrow to get to her.”
Say what?
Adam didn’t realize he’d said it out loud until Josslyn rolled her eyes at him.
“To put it in terms you might understand, she’s in heat. Dax was brought in to mate with her.”
“Surely that’s something the two elephants can accomplish without you present?” The normally unflappable director tugged at his shirt collar.
“It’s common protocol for one of the zoologists to be in attendance.”
“Jesus.” Adam pinched the bridge of his nose.
What would this woman get into next? He had a hunch she was playing the director to get out of being under lock and key at the White House. But it didn’t matter; the director wouldn’t budge.
Except he did.
“Fine,” Director Worcester acquiesced. “We’ll close off the elephant house for the next few days. I’ll speak with the FBI. They’re trying to find a way to flush the Africans out. This could be it.”
“Like hell!” Adam’s voice echoed throughout the hall. Had the man gone crazy? “We have no idea what these guys want from her. That’s an asinine suggestion.”
Adam’s chest grew tight. He told himself it was because the director was cavalier with Josslyn’s safety and security. But he suspected it was because he was beginning to think of her as more than just a protectee. And he was suddenly very uncomfortable at the idea of her exposed to any form of danger.
“I don’t believe you’re in a position to argue, Agent Lockett,” the director said. “Besides, I thought you’d jump at the chance to handle the tactical aspects of this assignment.”
“I’m fine with that plan,” Josslyn agreed with the director.
“Of course you are!” Adam fired back.
She huffed a sigh before crossing her arms beneath those attractive breasts of hers. “It’s the only scenario that allows me to continue on with my work and helps us find Ngoni.”
Adam swore viciously beneath his breath. The woman was too damn defiant for her own good. And the rest of the world let her get away with it. Well not him. But for now, he’d do whatever he could to keep her safe. He’d save the part about taming her for later.
“I’ll set up a conference call with the zoo security and the FBI.” The director made his way to the stairs. “You’ll want to sit in, I’m sure, Agent Lockett.”
“Yes, sir,” Adam said, but his feet seemed to be rooted to the carpet.
The sound of the director’s footsteps on the stairs faded. A slow, triumphant grin formed on Josslyn’s lips.
“Delilah,” he muttered.
“Excuse me?”
“That’s going to be your new code name.”
She laughed at him then, the husky sound of it making his head spin.
“I like it better when you call me Joss.”
Adam shoved his fingers through his hair. “Yeah, well, I need you to be Doolittle. Or PITA. Or Babar if I’m going to be able to keep you safe.”
Her grin became even more glorious. Damn it. Spinning on his heel, he followed in the director’s footsteps.
“Adam,” she called after him.
It wasn’t lost on him that she used his first name. Once again she was changing the rules of the game to suit her purpose. He paused at the top of stairs unable to resist a glance back at her.
“Good night,” she whispered.
Chapter Eight
“Stay away from the open areas of the exhibit,” Agent Lockett—Adam—instructed.
Josslyn did as she was told, keeping herself concealed behind the large protective screen the Secret Service had erected on the viewing deck. She marveled at how quickly Adam and his colleagues were able to secure the elephant barn so she could come into work. Guilt tightened her stomach, however. Her stupid pride ran away with her the night before. She could have just as easily observed the elephants from the closed-circuit video link on her computer. But, as was her nature, she’d balked stubbornly at the idea of being confined and told what to do. In doing so, she’d made Adam and his team work through the night. Not to mention ruining several field trips for area school children when the exhibit was closed to the public. The least she could do was to follow instructions and be congenial in return.
Truth be told, her insides were clamoring to be more than just congenial with Adam. If the previous two days were any indication, the connection they’d forged that night on the sea hadn’t faded despite his abrupt disappearance and nearly two years of no contact. The knowledge was both arousing and disarming to Josslyn. While the Secret Service agent made her feel safe and protected with just his presence, she feared parts of her were definitely not safe from Adam Lockett the man. He made her want things, things out of her control. And that feeling unsettled her more than whatever it was Mandla wanted from her.
Dax trumpeted from his side of the b
arn. Zara answered with a low hum of her own. The three other females paraded around the compound.
“So what happens now?” Adam asked.
“Don’t tell me no one ever explained the birds and the bees to you?” she teased.
“Funny.” He waved a hand toward the cows in the yard. “There are four females out there. Does your boyfriend Dax play stud with each of them?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she scoffed. “He’s an elephant, not a sailor on shore leave. He’ll mate with Zara.” She pointed to the younger female standing apart from the others.
“What makes you so certain he’ll pick her?”
“Zara and Dax have a history.”
Josslyn gave the signal to one of the trainers to open the door to Dax’s enclosure. The females chorused when the big bull rumbled into the yard. He took several moments to sniff at the other cows before making a beeline toward Zara. For her part, Zara played hard to get for all of two minutes before she allowed Dax to brush up against her.
Josslyn sighed happily, resting her forearms on the metal fence to observe. “I told you. Those two are meant to be.”
Beside her, Adam mumbled something under his breath.
“What was that?” she asked. “Please, Special Agent Lockett, if you have something to say, share it with the rest of the class.”
He peered over his ever-present aviator sunglasses at her. “I said, it’s just like a woman to turn a basic natural act into something that’s all”—he waved a hand in the air—“rainbows and glitter.”
“Rainbows and glitter?” She didn’t know whether to laugh with him or at him.
“Yeah, all that crap that makes women happy.”
“Trust me. It takes more than rainbows and glitter to make a woman happy. Unless she’s twelve.” It was her turn to eye the Secret Service agent from head to toe. “I would have thought a man like you would know better,” she challenged, totally ignoring her resolve to be amicable.
She was playing with fire and judging by the way his jaw tensed up, both knew it. He was saved from responding when Dax trumpeted loudly to the rest of the herd that he’d made his choice. Zara hummed again, intertwining her trunk with the big bull’s.
“See what I mean?” Josslyn grinned. “An elephant never forgets.”
Adam groaned. “You’re asking me to believe his desire to mate with Zara is based on something more than just natural physiological chemistry?”
Resting her chin on her forearms, she watched Zara jauntily parade over to the far side of the yard. Dax followed closely behind her. “Believe what you want. But humans aren’t the only animals capable of love.”
“What a bunch of drivel. I would have thought a scientist like you would know better,” he said, mocking her earlier words.
Josslyn refused to concede the point. “Spoken like a typical man. Several animal species mate for life, you know. Swans. Wolves. Penguins.” She ticked them off on her fingers. “Others, like elephants, tend to seek out the same partner time after time. Zara and Dax already mated successfully once. Unfortunately, their baby didn’t live. We’re hoping for a better result this time.”
“All the more reason he should pick the horny one.” He gestured to Mila.
Josslyn rounded on him, not bothering to contain her pique despite her vow to be congenial. “This may seem like a big joke to you, but this isn’t the middle school locker room. I assure you, there is actual, unrefuted scientific evidence to back up the assertion that animals do experience feelings, not the least of which is love. I know because I spent the better part of my PhD studying it.”
She balled her fingers into fists. He was just like everyone else in her family, dismissing her research as fluff and egocentricity—an indulgent princess playing scientist. But unlike everyone else’s, Adam’s respect mattered to her. She’d have to examine why later, but for now, it was maddening enough to know it was important to her.
Mila blasted a call through her trunk as if to punctuate Josslyn’s frustration. Adam cocked his head slightly to the side.
Josslyn threw up her hands. What was the use? The man thought rainbows and glitter could satisfy a woman, for crying out loud.
“Mila is past breeding age,” she enlightened him. “She’s not even in estrous. For that matter, neither are the other two cows.”
The corners of his mouth curved up in a satisfied smile. “I rest my case. Dax made his selection based purely on chemistry. There’s nothing romantic about his decision at all.”
She sighed in exasperation. “I should have known a big alpha male like you would have something against romance.”
“Romance is overrated.”
“And love?” The question slipped out before she could stop it.
With a suddenly dry mouth, she wrapped her arms around her midsection, waiting impatiently for him to answer. His expression was hard to decipher behind those damn sunglasses. Given how much coordination needed to be done to make the zoo safe for her to come to work today, those lenses likely hid the dark smudges caused by a sleepless night. Guilt niggled at her for being so demanding. He’d nearly passed out on herthe other day, yet he muscled on as if it were nothing.
Her chest ached for the young boy he’d once been—alone, scared, and defenseless. She knew very little of his life apart from what he’d shared with her that night in the ocean. But she was in awe of the man who had risen above his traumatic childhood. He wouldn’t be on her detail if he wasn’t well respected by the director, or the president, for that matter. Surely, he’d known love in his life. She tried to ignore the parts of her that were suddenly jealous of whomever he did love.
“It’s possible to have chemistry—very passionate chemistry—without love.” He uttered the words quietly.
Josslyn struggled not to react to their intensity. Or their challenge.
Jealousy knotted her stomach even more, which was ridiculous. She barely knew the guy—the years of fantasizing about him didn’t count. Still, she was curious. And more than mildly aroused, damn it. She attributed her sudden lusty desires to all the pheromones floating up from the elephant yard below.
“Spoken from experience, I presume?” She tried to appear nonchalant as she asked the question, but the hairs were standing up at the back of her neck.
A muscle ticked in his cheek. “I haven’t had any complaints.”
Oh my. Try as she might, she couldn’t contain the flush burning her cheeks.
“Well, good for you,” was all she could think of to say.
This time the smile he gave her was downright cocky. “Actually, based on the feedback I’ve been given”—he lowered his voice an octave—“I’m better than good.”
Josslyn spun on her heel and turned around to avoid melting into a puddle at his feet. Ignoring his satisfied chuckle, she blew out a slow, calming breath, trying to refocus her attention on the reason they were at the zoo in the first place. She needed to concentrate on the mating habits of elephants, not those of domineering, dark, and brooding snipers.
Dax and Zara had completed their coupling. If the zoo was lucky, the two would mate again several more times during the next few days, increasing the odds of a pregnancy. For now, it was satisfying for Josslyn to see the elephants relaxed in one another’s company. Zara basked in the afterglow, humming contentedly while Dax flapped his ears and kept the other females away from her.
“Don’t even try to tell me what they’re doing now is some sort of pillow talk because I’m not buying it,” he said as if reading her mind.
Josslyn wheeled around to put the smart aleck in his place. But the words froze on her tongue when she spotted the man approaching Adam from behind. Before she could catch her breath, Adam’s big body was shielding hers, his gun drawn and pointed at the would-be intruder.
“Freeze!” Adam snarled.
Trevor’s good hand—along with his eyebrows—shot to the sky. “Whoa, there, mate. I come in peace.”
“For heaven’s sake, don’t shoot him
again!” Josslyn scrambled out from behind Adam’s tense frame. “Trevor, what are you doing here?”
“Careful, sweetheart.” Trevor groaned when she hugged him. “I’m still on the disabled list.”
She glanced at his bandaged shoulder, held immobile by the sling he wore. It wasn’t like Trevor to miss any opportunity for sympathy and coddling at home or in a hospital. Something must be seriously wrong if he’d made the sixteen-hour trip to the United States so quickly after being shot.
“I Skyped with Hugh last night to tell him Ngoni is alive,” Josslyn informed him. “He said you were recovering at the Australian consulate.”
“Yeah. I know.” Trevor glanced over at Adam before lowering his voice. “You have a detail now?”
Adam had sheathed his gun and assumed the posture of unobtrusive bodyguard. She didn’t have to see behind his sunglasses to know where his eyes were, however. She could feel them boring into her skin as he tracked her movements.
“For the time being. Harriett and Conrad insisted,” she explained.
Trevor was constantly going on about individual freedoms and the overbearing power of those in power. He’d always supported her right to go without Secret Service protection. His response, therefore, caught her off guard.
“Good.” He nodded at Adam before clutching Josslyn’s forearm and gently dragging her to the other side of the viewing pavilion.
Unease tickled her spine. “What’s really going on, Trevor? Why aren’t you back in Zimbabwe recuperating?”
“The Australian ambassador kicked me out.” Trevor wrapped his good hand around the back of his neck. “He said he couldn’t guarantee my safety if I stayed in the country.”
His words astounded her. “The tribesmen wouldn’t dare come after you on embassy grounds.”
“Sweetheart,” Trevor drawled. “It’s just as we suspected. This ring of barbarians has its tentacles everywhere, including inside the embassies.”
She thought of the Post-it note from Tseng’s office. Christian Sumner’s name was the only thing she could decipher. As much as she despised the little despot, Christian was a bootlicker, not a risk taker. Sucking up was his superpower. Josslyn had difficulty imagining him coloring outside the lines much less involving himself in something illegal and abhorrent. Still, there had to be a connection somewhere for Tseng to have his name. She’d just have to get the rest of the note translated. Discreetly. Too bad David didn’t read or write Mandarin. She’d reach out to a friend at the University of Maryland tomorrow.
Shot in the Dark Page 10