Bound to Serve (Dangerous Liaisons #1)

by Julie Castle

  “Right,” he said after a moment.

  So he didn’t believe her, she shouldn’t be surprised. When he stepped closer, invading her personal space, it was all she could do to keep from cringing. Condor was doing his job, which meant she had to do hers and fake it with the best of them. James’s cold hand ran up her arm and then stopped to cup her breast in her bikini top, his cold gaze locked onto hers. She knew he was watching her pupils, gauging her pulse, looking for telltale physical signs of her reactions, field agent 101 stuff. She took a calming breath and leaned in, drawing on warm memories from the night before, and she stood still as he kissed her.

  He leaned back to look at her, and then he gave a satisfied nod. “The magic’s still there, babe.”

  “I guess I can’t deny it,” she said with a smile. This was going well.

  She arched against him, pressed tighter. His fingers stroked her ass, and she faked it by letting out a needy gasp.

  A sound to the side made them break their kiss, and Lola walked out of the connecting room.

  “Don’t let me interrupt,” Lola said.

  Bridget let out a little gasp and focused a deer-in-the-headlights gaze at her. Things had just gotten more complex. Why wasn’t she out meeting Condor?

  Lola smiled, seemingly pleased by her shocked reaction.

  “What is she doing here?” Bridget asked, easing closer to James, not liking Lola’s tense smile one bit. The woman was on edge for some reason.

  “Don’t worry, Bridge,” James said smoothly. “Mistress Lola’s a special friend of mine.”

  “How special?” She deepened her voice to show jealousy she didn’t feel, and she narrowed her eyes on the other woman.

  James chuckled, sank down onto the bed, and tugged Bridget onto his lap. “Don’t worry, honey, there’s plenty of me to go around.”

  “That’s good to know,” she said, forcing herself to relax and smile as his arm looped around her waist and trapped her.

  Lola’s gaze watched her. “Aren’t you supposed to be out sailing?” she asked Lola, watching the other woman’s dour expression.

  Lola flashed a brittle cat-that-ate-a-canary smile and pulled up a chair. “There’s plenty of time for that. And don’t worry about your man, I’ll take extra good care of him,” Lola said with a sultry purr.

  “I don’t doubt it,” Bridget muttered, instantly jealous. The damned woman would be all over him like poison ivy.

  “Tell her about Delta Star,” James coaxed, and his arm around her waist tightened a little.

  Bridget didn’t bother to move. It was no good letting these idiots know that she had the honed self-defense skills of a field agent—yet. “Why?” she asked, stalling.

  Lola walked over to the wet bar and poured two shots of rum. “Come on, spill.” She carried the shot glasses over to them. “Friends don’t keep secrets.”

  “Since when are we friends?” Bridget asked, instantly wary as Lola held out one of the shots.

  “Since I poured you a drink and decided to let bygones be bygones,” she said, waiting for Bridget to take the shot.

  With a sigh, Bridget reached for the glass. “Thanks.” She hated rum, but if it would mollify the woman and buy Condor some time, she’d drink the foul stuff. Maybe if she kept the bitch occupied, she’d never make it to the boat. She tossed back the drink, wrinkling her nose at the acrid taste, and gasped as it burned all the way down.

  “What could I tell you about Delta Star? You know I don’t work there anymore. I resigned.”

  Lola shook her head. “No! You were quietly fired, because your father’s the old director and you went nuts.”

  Bridget slanted a frown up at James. He’d been a fount of information. “I see he’s been blabbing.”

  Lola nodded with a smirk. “The boy does like to talk.”

  “Boy!” James grumbled. “I’m a man.”

  “Easy, stud,” Lola said, shutting him up.

  “So what’s it to you?” Bridget yawned. The room suddenly began to spin. The shot glass fell from her suddenly lifeless fingers and rolled across the floor to Lola.

  What the hell did she give me?

  “Oops,” Lola said, bending to pick it up. “You wouldn’t want daddy to find out about your kinky sexual proclivities.”

  “What the hell was in that?”

  “Oh, a little something to keep you calm.”

  “I am calm,” Bridget hissed back at her.

  “You won’t be when you find out about Condor.”

  Bridget scowled as the name echoed in her head. “Who?” she asked wrinkling her brow, really trying to sell it.

  “Told ya she didn’t know,” James said. “The girl’s a moron.”

  “Hey,” Bridget protested, feeling herself drifting away. Her last thought was of warning Condor.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Condor walked the perimeter of the marina one last time, looking for a setup before going out onto the pier. The fishing charter was tied up and purring. He heard the click of high heels and turned to see Lola rushing his way. There was an excited look in her ice blue eyes.

  “Sorry I’m late,” she said, stepping up to him.

  Condor smiled down at her, but the flushed look on her face spoke to more than her hurried pace. Something was wrong. “No problem, it was worth the wait.”

  She went on her tiptoes to kiss him, and he drew her into his arms, surprised. He kissed her back, trying for a response she’d buy. When she broke the kiss, he gazed down into her troubled eyes. There was remoteness there now. He suddenly got a very bad feeling. “What’s wrong?”

  “I’ve got to work, I can’t go with you.”

  He let out a relieved breath. So that’s what was bothering her. “Well, in that case, I can wait…”

  “No,” she protested, clutching his arm. “I want you to go and enjoy it. A special treat from me.”

  He nodded, agreeing partially because it seemed to set her at ease and partly because it would give him a good chance to check the other island. “Okay.”

  She smiled. “Good. That’s another fantasy fulfilled.”

  “You ready to go?” a strange man said from the keel.

  “Where’s the skipper?” Condor asked, seeing the new skipper.

  “Unfortunately I had to fire the other one because of your earlier stunt.”

  Condor gave her a regretful frown. “You had to?”

  She tilted her head to give him a direct look. “I need to be surrounded by men I can trust. Otherwise, they have to go.”

  He nodded, hoping to show her he was on the same page.

  She smiled and turned to go. “Enjoy it,” she said over her shoulder.

  He watched her rush away, wondering at her hurry, and then he climbed onboard. He just had to play this out until midnight. A glance at his diver’s watch showed Bridget still safely in the compound. Lola’s sudden change of attitude was bothersome. Was she starting to have doubts about him? It explained her wary, almost regretful tone. The captain cast off and then immediately went into the cabin to head out. Unfriendly sort, but it helped not to have to make casual conversation.

  Condor prowled the stern as they moved out into the channel, and he looked back toward the island. To his surprise, Lola was standing there watching him leave. He waved to her, wondering why she was lingering if she was in such a hurry, and she waved back.

  He stood at prow of the boat, enjoying the shimmer of the water under the setting sun. At eight, Perez would come ashore, and by midnight, they would have him and the rest of the gang in custody. Only six hours until Bridget was safe, and he could try to pick up the pieces of his life.

  His mission had changed focus when he and Bridget had come together last night. If he was honest, it’d changed the moment she’d come into his life. Perez and Clayton were evil, and divine justice would see that they paid the price. But his main focus was now on protecting Bridget at any cost. Perez would come, Condor would take him down, and it would all be over. An
other Delta Star team would converge on Lace Island and sweep it for Perez’s associates. However messy things came out, this would end tonight, and he and Bridget would go back to the real world by morning. But his world was meaningless without her. Much as he preached against agents getting involved with each other, avoiding Mission Magic, he wouldn’t change a thing. She’d brought him into the light.

  He stared into the distance, raised his binoculars, and made out some activity on the island. He was too far away to see exactly what, but it helped reassure him that Perez was still there. He lowered the glasses and looked out at the glistening water, searching for the serenity it always brought, but he couldn’t find it. Something was wrong.

  He glanced at the monitor on his divers watch and saw that Bridget hadn’t left the compound. So what was making him so edgy? She was safe, and that was the most important thing. He had a job to complete before he could get back to her, and he’d better get his head on straight so he could do it efficiently.

  The sea was a little choppy with whitecaps making the boat rock, as he stood braced on the point, relaxing a little, back in his element. It was a false feeling of security, but he’d take it to help get his mind back on the mission.

  He caught some movement out of the corner of his eye. He stayed loose, careful not to let on that he sensed danger or could defend himself. It was James, coming out of the lower deck. Condor’s opponent might be reckless and piss poor on water, but he wasn’t harmless. Another rock of the boat made James clutch the rail to keep from toppling. Condor gathered himself for action knowing he probably wouldn’t draw first, but he damned sure would end the bastard before he could touch Bridget.

  A glint of moonlight off the barrel told him James already had a round in the chamber of his silver-plated revolver, probably a hot load designed to tear him apart. The only option was diversion and defense.

  He turned slowly and put his hands up so as not to startle the traitor. “I wondered if this was a trap.”

  James grinned back at him, jubilant. “So you finally grew a brain, Condor,” he said, and he came fully topside. “Don’t know how you thought you could get away with it. Conning Bridget into believing you were Welch and talking her into coming here.”

  So the bastard had finally figured it out. Were his gloating words confirmation that he already had Bridget? That she was hurt? Dead? Something inside him truly turned to ice at the thought. No. He couldn’t allow himself to think she was dead. He’d do anything, sacrifice anything to save her.

  But first he had to deal with Clayton. He fell back on his training. Deny, muddy the waters, accuse.

  “Is that what she said?” Condor asked, going for a calm tone he sure as hell didn’t feel. If the bastard had touched her, hurt her, he was a dead man. “Maybe she’s the one conning me.”

  James smirked. “Don’t make me laugh. She doesn’t have the brainpower to know what you are.”

  Condor scowled, his body tensing at the dig to Bridget’s intelligence, and he noticed James’s smug grin telling him he noticed the tell-tale reaction.

  “Aha, so you’re hung up on her, too,” he said. “Interesting. She does have a nice rack, but she’s cold in bed.”

  Shut your fucking mouth, or I’ll shut it for you permanently.

  “Not with a man who actually knows what he’s doing,” Condor said, jabbing at the other man’s greatest weakness—his inflated ego.

  James’s hand tightened on the trigger. “A lot you know, Condor.”

  “So did she tell you…?”

  “She didn’t have to. I finally remembered you from Delta Recon 101, and your limp dick lecture on Mission Magic. Took me a minute because you’ve changed man.”

  “Time has a way of doing that to us all.”

  “What a fucking joke. You know what they say, those that can’t do, teach. You’ve really screwed this up, Condor.”

  “I’m getting old, I guess,” Condor agreed, placating his opponent. He watched the other man ease up on the trigger, and he relaxed a little at the admission. “Is Bridget okay?”

  “She’s sleeping like a baby, no thanks to you. If she meant so much to you, then you shouldn’t have brought her here. But don’t worry, I’m keeping her alive and on ice, for now.”

  His gut tensed. “Damn it, if you touch her, I’ll…”

  “Yeah, yeah,” James said in a bored tone. “Save the empty threats. Lola’s ‘no guns’ rule means you’re unarmed.” He waved the gun toward the stern. “Get going. You’re wasting my time and boring the hell out of me.”

  So the guy didn’t know he was packing. Score one for Bridget. She’d be gratified to know that his plastic gun had squeaked by undetected. He only hoped she was equally correct about it being waterproof. Condor walked to the back of the boat, easily navigating the tossing deck. James followed him at a distance, a little wobbly on what looked like new deck shoes. He pulled the plastic gun out of his waistband, and James laughed in his face.

  “What the hell is that?”

  “My secret weapon,” he said.

  “I’d say your secret weapon days are over.” James squeezed the trigger.

  Condor feinted to the right just as the gunshot roared, and he fired back as he dove into the water. James cried out. Condor kicked and dove deeper, bullets zinging by him underwater. Lungs straining, he knew he couldn’t stay down forever, and he silently came to the surface on the opposite side of the hull. But where was James…?

  Then he saw the traitor doing the dead man’s float in the water, motionless. Good God. After all of this, Bridget’s ex was dead. Condor’s only regret was that she hadn’t dispatched him herself.

  He took a deep breath and dove low again, swimming underwater toward the beach. He broke surface twenty-yards away, but he didn’t look back. He couldn’t risk turning his white face toward the boat. It’d make him too easy to spot. Instead, he swam toward the uninhabited side of the island.

  Lungs heaving, he hauled himself on shore, but couldn’t stop to rest. He had to save Bridget. He hurried off the beach and into the cover of the jungle growth. Only then did he stop to turn and watch from the shadows. The boat was still anchored out there, panning a spotlight over the moonlit shimmering surface, while the captain stood nearby with a rifle.

  The skipper probably wanted to bring back a corpse to prove his worth to Lola. A glance at his diver’s watch told Condor it was near midnight, and the blip told him Bridget was still in the compound, and worryingly still, motionless. His gut clenched. She had to be alive. He wouldn’t let himself think different. James’ assertion that she was sleeping like a baby gave him hope. They wouldn’t kill her while Condor was still out there, not when they could use her as leverage. The urge to tear back to the compound and blow the place apart to get to her ran strong in his heart, but he knew being impulsive now could get her killed.

  Instead, he made for the cave, for his cache of weapons, and to signal the extraction team and give them an ETA for pick up. The charges would go off, giving them the diversion needed to extricate Bridget.

  He pulled out his SAT phone and typed in the predestined numbers for the extraction team, letting them know he was in place. Half of them would set charges large enough to send Lola’s whole goon squad in the wrong direction and blow a hole through the stone walls surrounding the compound. The other half would wait off island for his signal. The takedown was already set for midnight.

  Then he made a personal call to Frost. He pulled out the encrypted cell phone from his pack—seeing the bottle of bubble bath made his heart tighten and his gut twist. She had to make it. They couldn’t find love, and lose it. Damn, why hadn’t he given her the words? Because deep down, he’d known she was braver than he was. If he got another chance, he wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. If he had to tell her good-bye, if he had to walk away from her, he’d at least tell her how he felt about her.

  He punched in Bran Frost’s personal number on speed dial.

  Frost picked up on th
e third ring. “What’s going on, Condor? How’s it going out there in babe city?”

  Condor grit his teeth, deciding to ignore his superior’s amused tone. He felt far from smiling. The man didn’t know that his whole world was imploding. “Things are shitty. I’ve been made and Bridget’s been captured. James Clayton is here and working with the enemy.”

  “What about Perez?”

  At this point, he didn’t care about anything but getting Bridget back. “Let the team take him out. I’m going after her and the clock is ticking.” Condor severed the connection before Frost could respond. He pocketed his cell phone and strode back toward the exit to the cave.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Bridget came to semi-consciousness, her head throbbing, her mouth dry and cottony. She was lying atop a bed, naked, she realized with embarrassment. Shit, they must have stripped her to search her. Oh, lord, had they found her microchips?

  It took every bit of strength she had to move her hand up to her face and feel for them. She sighed when she felt the tiny dots under her fingertip and pulled one of them off, just in case. She had to get to Condor, had to warn him.

  Her leaden arm flopped down on the mattress. Good grief, what kind of potent narcotic had Lola given her? She wrinkled her nose as the woman’s strong perfume came to her. The bitch was here somewhere.

  She opened her bleary eyes to look around. “Lola,” she managed to croak. The bitch was standing by the wet bar, drinking again. Liquid courage.

  A glance at the clock on the wall showed her that it was a quarter to midnight, almost showtime. Condor would come to her rescue if he could. Her heart twisted with fear. She didn’t think she could stand losing him. What she’d felt for James wasn’t even a glimmer of the love she felt for Condor. He’d made her life complete. She loved him, and she trusted him to come for her.