by Lucy Monroe
She flinched at the crudity and Prescott’s lips curved in a twisted smile. “You are far too innocent for the likes of him, Beth.”
And just the type of woman he liked playing his ugly games with. Or so he thought. Beth wanted nothing more than to give him a taste of black belt and teach him not all women were helpless or that easily enthralled.
Innocence did not equate to stupidity and naïveté was something that should be protected, not exploited. But he was going to learn that soon enough.
Ethan was simmering with rage when he came to pick Beth up.
Neither of them spoke until they were inside the cabin.
“That sick son of a bitch had photos doctored to look like I was having an affair, didn’t he?”
“Yes. You heard the conversation.”
Ethan jerked his head in assent, his body vibrating with incandescent anger.
“He wants me to move in with him.” He had to have heard that, too, but she didn’t expect him to bring it up.
“No way in hell.”
She’d anticipated that reaction. “Ethan, we’ve got to get into his computer…find something more than what we’ve got right now for an airtight collar. Me being in the house is an in we can’t afford to ignore.”
“No.”
“I’m not going to let him hurt me.”
“Neither am I. You are not moving in with him. In fact, I think it’s time you quit your job.”
She gasped. “We don’t have enough intel. I need to be there.”
“We’ve got bugs.”
“What if they’re found? For all you know, Prescott has a sweep scheduled any day now.”
“He’s too arrogant to sweep for bugs. He thinks he’s too smart to be double-crossed. If he wasn’t, he would have swept for them right after the party.”
“Maybe. Or maybe it’s just part of his routine security and he’s got one scheduled soon.”
“It doesn’t matter…we’ll make the collar. And we’ll make it stick, but we aren’t risking your safety to do it.”
“And if I were a trained agent?”
“Then it would be different, but I’d still be strongly against it. The man hurts women and he likes doing it.”
“You talked to the sister. When?”
“I called this morning, before that jumped-up scene in Prescott’s office.”
True to his word, Ethan had discussed the option of bringing the DEA agent in on their case with Beth. Beth had felt the woman deserved the chance to help bring down her sister’s abuser. Ethan had agreed, but only after doing a thorough investigation of the other woman’s background, her strengths and weaknesses as an agent.
He’d concluded Rachel Gannon was someone Beth’s dad would be lucky to have working for him at TGP.
“She told me that Prescott plays dominance games with women of the sadistic kind.”
“He’s into S&M?”
“Yes. She fully expects the auction to include a new sex slave for him as part of the package.”
“That’s horrible.”
“Yes, it is, and there’s no way you are ever going to move into the same house with a monster like that.”
“But we need an in.”
“I’m going to ask Hotwire to help me hack the system.”
Beth’s mind reeled at the statement. Ethan was not the type of man to ask for help, ever…but especially not outside the agency.
“Don’t look at me like I just said I wanted to get a job table dancing at Hooters.”
“But…”
“Bennett Vincent is not available and he’s the only hacker at the agency better than me.”
“You think Hotwire’s better than you?”
“He might be, but even if he’s not—if we’re working together, even Prescott’s ICE won’t stand against us.”
“What about my job with Prescott?”
“You’re quitting.”
“Do you think Whit would approve?”
“I’m the agent in charge. This is my call, Beth.”
“What if you can’t crack the ICE, what if what we have isn’t enough evidence to put him away?”
“You need to trust me, Sunshine. My gut is telling me to keep you the hell away from him.”
“Your gut, or your heart?”
“Does it matter?”
“It shouldn’t. It’s an assignment. I know that. But it does.”
“Both, all right?”
She nodded, her chest tight. “Is Rachel Gannon going to be a problem?”
“No. She was relieved when I called. She’d come to the realization that killing him wasn’t enough. She wants to see him suffer, see him in prison where his reputation as a woman abuser can precede him, see his assets seized by the government, see him broken.”
“Like her sister before she took her life.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t she call her agency?”
“It’s not the DEA’s jurisdiction. She was getting ready to call the FBI when I contacted her.”
“Your timing was good then. They would have complicated things.”
“It always is, baby, or hadn’t you noticed?”
She laughed at his sheer confidence. “If I say yes, it will go to your head.”
“Whereas if you say no, my manly ego will be mortally wounded.”
“Your manly ego could take a mortar and not be mortally wounded.”
“It’s the way you respond to me. It makes me feel like Superman.”
“You mean Superstud?”
He laughed. “Yeah, maybe that.”
Ethan made the phone call to Prescott and it wasn’t pretty. Prescott kept insisting on speaking with Beth and Ethan told him no. Categorically. He also called him a couple of names and told him he knew he’d had the photos faked, but couldn’t figure out why he’d gone to the trouble. If he was that hard up for women, maybe he should buy himself some companionship.
“He’s going to send an assassin after you after that,” Beth said when Ethan hung up.
“Good. Then we’ll have another crime to charge him with.”
She shivered. “I’m glad the auction is in only a couple of days. Even you aren’t invincible, Superstud.”
“Is that my new name?”
“To me.”
He grinned. “I like it.”
“I know you do.”
“I like something else, too.”
“But it will have to wait. You just destroyed our in with the perp. Call your friend. You two need to get to work.”
“You can be very bossy when you want to be, has anyone ever told you that?”
“Why do you think I fantasized about handcuffing you to the bed?”
“You did that because you secretly longed for a lover who could take all you had to give and come back for more.”
“You think so?”
“I’m sure of it. You’re a very passionate woman and you need a man who can match that passion. It’s not easy, but I’m up to the job.”
“You might be up, but you are also on duty. Now…get…to…work.” She enunciated each word with careful clarity.
He saluted and then called Hotwire.
Ethan was grinning when Hotwire picked up the phone. He loved Beth in her feisty, take-charge mode. She got that way at the office and it always made him smile and grow hard. He was up, just like he’d said, but he could control himself. For a while.
“Hey, buddy…you got some time?”
“Sure, what’s up?”
He moved to sit in front of his laptop set up at the dining room table. Another agent was in the spare room listening to Prescott’s audibles. “I’ve got prelim access on a computer, but I’m hitting wall after wall in ICE.”
“Give me the ID code and ISP if you’ve got it.”
Ethan relayed the information he had.
He heard clicking in the background and did his own initial sequence for connection.
“You’re right, this man has serious ICE, but he�
��s made the terminal mistake…the only one that it’s impossible to protect against.”
“He’s got ISP connection.”
“Yes. No matter how good the ICE, it can always be cracked, but you can’t hack a computer externally that isn’t hooked up for outside connectivity.”
He didn’t know how long he’d been working when Beth started rubbing his shoulders, massaging the kinks out. He turned and kissed one hand.
She kissed the top of his head. “I’m going to make a pot of coffee.”
“That’s great, thanks.” But his mind was on Hotwire’s de-encryption program.
It was one of the best he’d seen. They’d connected about thirty minutes into their session and were working on the hack in real time together.
“If we work from three different points, rather than all of us working on each wall of ICE at the same time, we have a better chance of breaking in.” Claire had picked up an extension and joined them sometime ago. “Bennett, you stick with encryption. Ethan, you work on circumventing the firewall, I’m going to work on the password for entry. It’s a scrolling one and I recognize the pattern…I studied its creator in one of my classes.”
“Good idea, honey,” Hotwire said. “The longer we take on the hack, the bigger chance we’re going to be detected.”
They’d been careful to cover themselves, but it was taking longer because they had to be so careful to hide their fingerprints in the system. If they were backtracked, the trail would end at three different computers with ISP addresses assigned in China. Any attempt to go beyond would encounter a virus that would keep the backtracker busy if it didn’t destroy the hard drive.
Chapter 20
Beth grew fidgety as the afternoon wore on. She was keeping quiet for both Ethan’s sake and that of the agent in the other room, but she needed to breathe some air besides that in the cabin. And she wanted to go through her Poom Ses, but there was nowhere inside that she could do it without disturbing someone. The clearing about a hundred yards from the cabin would work great.
For the past two weeks, Ethan had been taking her down to the beach just after dawn each morning, where he worked out and ran while she went through her tae kwon do exercises. But they’d missed yesterday and today because of his efforts to hack into Prescott’s computer security.
She changed into clothes that would be comfortable for her workout and then tapped Ethan on the shoulder. “I’m going for a walk.”
“Wear a comm unit and stay in sight of the house.”
“Aye, aye, sir.”
He turned his green gaze on her. “Don’t be smart.”
“But I am smart.”
His lips quirked. “You’re also sassy.”
“You wouldn’t want me any other way.”
“No, I wouldn’t.”
She was smiling when she let herself out the back door of the cabin. The autumn air smelled fresh and clean, so different to what she was used to and she stopped to drag in a deep breath. They were close to the ocean and she could smell the salt in the air along with wet leaves and moist earth. Even the tree bark had its own unique fragrance that added to the ambiance in the forest.
She was tempted to walk to the beach, but she’d promised to stay in sight of the house. She headed through the forest to the clearing. In the spring and summer it would have been out of sight of the house, too, but the crimson and yellow leaves had dropped from the trees, creating a spongy layer over the ground. The evergreens blocked the view from the house a little, but not completely and she was wearing the comm unit.
It was so different here. Not just clean, but earthy. What would it be like to live someplace like this all the time?
Immediately following that thought another came un-bidden. Her and Ethan sharing a small house in Virginia, close enough to D.C. to continue working for TGP, but far enough from the city to catch the flavor of the world she was standing in right now. Ethan hadn’t said anything about a future, but he had suggested she train to be an agent rather than leave TGP.
He’d also seemed relieved when she said she would consider it. He didn’t want her to go, she didn’t think. She wasn’t the queen of reading men’s feelings, but she was pretty sure Ethan didn’t want their relationship to end with the conclusion of the assignment. That didn’t mean he’d be open to sharing the kind of future she was dreaming about right that minute.
She kicked at fallen leaves. She’d learned so much about herself in the past few weeks, it was kind of scary. But she realized that if she couldn’t have the life she’d always wanted—the loving family that did normal stuff together and shared the same home more than occasionally—maybe the life of an agent would be an okay substitute. It was such a huge transition in her thinking, she was wary of her reasons for feeling this way.
Was she trying again to be acceptable to someone she loved? Did she want the life Ethan had so she could share it with him?
But being an agent didn’t necessarily mean they’d spend any more time together. Ethan did not work with a partner. Most agents for TGP didn’t. He took high-risk assignments usually, not ones that a new agent would be sent out on. In fact, becoming an agent might keep her in D.C., but it wouldn’t guarantee her one more minute of Ethan’s time.
So, why was she considering it when she’d fought the idea for so long? Was it because she’d realized that she liked the adrenaline rush? Or simply because she saw that she had an aptitude for subterfuge? Or maybe, more disturbingly because her dad would be thrilled by the prospect? Was she still seeking that elusive brass ring of parental approval?
Yet, her heart rejected all the alternatives her mind tossed up to her. It told her that despite what she’d always been so sure of…she was finally finding a life that might fit who she was. Or at least who she had become.
“Beth, I’m glad to see you here.”
Her head snapped up and she stared in shock at Arthur Prescott. She’d been so lost in her thoughts, she hadn’t heard his approach. “What are you doing here?”
“Walking in the woods.” But he wasn’t exactly dressed for the endeavor. He wore one of his many designer suits and Italian leather dress shoes that looked strange against the carpet of decaying autumn leaves. “I needed some time to myself after your boyfriend called and said you would not be working for me any longer. I’m worried about you, Beth.”
He sounded so sincere, but the hairs on the back of her neck were standing on end. She hated the thought of his smarmy technique fooling another woman like the young girl who’d killed herself after tangling with him. There was something coldly evil that surrounded him in spite of his urbane façade.
“I’m sorry about that. I didn’t mean for you to be worried, but he insists you faked the pictures.”
“What do you think?”
She was using her peripheral vision to scan her surroundings, trying to listen for the sound of anyone he might have brought with him. “I don’t know what to think. He asked lots of questions about the pictures. None of them showed his naked body…he said that was proof that they were faked.”
“Did they look faked to you?”
“No, but I love him. I have to believe him.”
“That’s an admirable sentiment, my dear, but why would I do such a thing?”
“I don’t know.” She bit her lip, striving for a confused look. “Ethan says you want me.”
“I do, but I don’t have to stoop to lying to get women I want.” He was moving closer and she backed up.
He stopped and frowned at her, contriving to look hurt. “Are you afraid of me, Beth?”
“If you faked those photos, I have good reason to be. But I can handle you.” She said that for the agent monitoring her comm unit back at the cabin.
They were so close to nailing Prescott, she didn’t want to risk their cover having the Calvary come riding to the rescue.
Something sparked in Prescott’s eyes at her assertion—something like twisted anticipation. “And if I didn’t? If you quit your jo
b and let me down…all on the word of a cheating swine, what then?”
“That’s not true.”
“Where is Ethan, Beth?”
“He’s working.”
Prescott gave her a disbelieving look. “After what you learned today, he’s dismissed you to work on another of his second-rate books?”
“His writing isn’t second rate.”
“Then why has he published with a small press in the Midwest rather than New York?”
“New York publishers require authors to be available for publicity and Ethan is a very private person.”
Prescott shook his head pityingly. “You’ll make excuses for him no matter what the circumstance, won’t you?”
“They aren’t excuses.”
He was moving again, trying to get closer and she was parrying his moves with defensive postures from her tae kwon do that were second nature to her now. But when he reached out and grabbed her arm, she let him, wanting to know what he planned to do. And not wanting to tip off how easily she could get away from him.
He pulled her closer. “I can’t stand to see you waste your life on him, Beth. This is for your best interests.”
“What?”
One of his security men came out of the forest to their left. Beth’s eyes widened, though deep inside, she was not surprised. As inconceivable as it might be in the world of the sane, she thought Prescott planned to kidnap her. And believed he could get away with it.
“I think you should come back to my house with me, Beth.”
“No.” She windmilled her arm, breaking his hold and hooked her foot behind his ankle, jerking with practiced ease while she shoved against his chest with all her might.
He went down hard and she ran.
“Get her!” Prescott yelled.
Another security man came out of the forest and the two converged on her. She’d had to spar multiple partners to earn her black belt and she let instincts she’d taken years to hone take over. The one on her left lunged for her and she used his forward momentum and a spinning axe kick to send him flying in the opposite direction.
The other guard didn’t mess with trying to grab her, but brought a gun up. She threw herself into a forward somersault landing near enough to kick upward and dislodge the gun before executing an openhanded punch to his groin. He grunted and fell forward, his face losing all color.