Exposed

by Samantha Keith

  A tingling sensation erupted on his thigh. Who the hell was calling him now? He checked the screen: Ethan.

  Goddammit, what did he want? He never called repeatedly unless it was an emergency. Guilt ate at the lining of his stomach. He swiped the pad of his thumb across the screen, ignoring the call.

  He slipped it back in his pocket, but it vibrated again, this one a short interval. A message. He sighed and took his phone back out.

  Answer your phone, dipshit. It’s important.

  He kept his head low as he weaved along the boardwalk. A group of young women in bikinis whizzed past him on roller skates. His body didn’t even stir.

  He had Maddie to thank for that. The only time he got turned on, was when he saw or spoke to her. Which was right fucked up. Carlos was probably deep inside her and—

  “Fuck,” he breathed as he massaged between his eyes. She was driving him crazy. Maddie could do whatever the hell she wanted. She sure as shit wasn’t his girlfriend, thank god.

  He pushed Maddie from his mind, tapped Ethan’s contact icon, and pressed the phone to his ear. He had to play it cool.

  “You done avoiding my calls?” Ethan barked. Annoyance rippled through him. If Ethan only knew that he was dealing with Maddie, he’d understand.

  “I’m not avoiding you, dude, I’m working. What’s wrong?”

  Ethan breathed into the phone. “Sorry, just a little stressed. I didn’t want to bother Cal with this. Gracie is teething, and he and Lana haven’t slept in a week.”

  Nate groaned. He’d be damned if he ever had kids. “That fucking sucks. What’s up?”

  “It’s Maddie.” Nate closed his eyes and swallowed. He stepped onto the smooth concrete parking lot and fished his keys out of his pocket. The sun glared into his pupils, blinding him even through his sunglasses. He had to be careful. Ethan was as observant as a hawk when it came to his sisters.

  “What’d she do now?” He kept his tone even, though his throat swelled with the effort it took.

  “Dana called me. Maddie has been avoiding her for weeks. Dana finally got a hold of her today and learned she’s working on a case, but Maddie wouldn’t say what it’s about.”

  “You know she can’t divulge information like that.”

  Ethan grunted. “Yeah, but is that a reason to ignore your family for weeks? She’s up to something. I swear to fucking god, if I find out she’s doing something dangerous, I’m going to haul her ass out of there.”

  Nate opened the door to his truck, started the ignition, and let the air conditioning run while he leaned against the open door. Sweat collected at his brow and he wiped it away. With the pressure of Ethan, he’d combust if he got inside the sweltering vehicle.

  “Maddie’s impulsive,” he breathed. It wasn’t a lie. “Have you called her?” It was a stupid question, but he needed to figure out what the hell to say.

  “Yup. She hasn’t returned my calls.”

  Nate closed his eyes and ran his knuckles over his jaw. “What’s your gut telling you?”

  “I don’t need to listen to my gut, the facts are there. She’s lying and hiding and the only explanation for that is that she’s involved in something she shouldn’t be.”

  The roar of a speedboat split the air, rattling the ground beneath his feet.

  “Is that a boat?”

  Nate’s pulse slowed.

  “Where the hell are there lakes in Phoenix?”

  Nate’s breath came out in shallow puffs. If Ethan suspected he was with Maddie, he’d tear him to shreds. Whether he was banging her or not, covering up Maddie’s lies were just as bad.

  “A boat? Nah, man. That was a motorcycle. If you want my advice, back off a bit. You’re smothering her to death. And the more you hound her, the more she’s going to avoid you. Give her some space and let her come to you. If she doesn’t get back to you in a week, then go ape shit.”

  Ethan groaned. “Yeah, you’re right. She makes me so fucking crazy sometimes. She doesn’t think, you know?”

  “I know, believe me,” he ground out. “But, it’s her life and she’s the one who has to suffer the consequences. I know this is probably hard to hear, but you need to let her make mistakes. People need to screw up in order to learn.”

  “Are you saying I’m enabling her?” Ethan’s tone was terse.

  “Fucking right I am.”

  He snorted. “You don’t have any siblings, so you wouldn’t know.”

  Nate lifted a shoulder. “You’re right, I don’t. But what you’re doing isn’t helping. I think we can both agree on that.”

  A beat passed. “You know, this wasn’t the response I expected from you.”

  A vice tightened around Nate’s stomach. He was treading in dangerous waters. “Sorry, man. I’m really stressed out with this case I’m working on. Let me know how it goes with Maddie and if there’s anything I can do to help.”

  “Actually, there is.” Hesitation crept into Ethan’s voice. “Could you call her? Maybe tell her I’m worried about her? She might not ignore you.”

  Sonofabitch. Nate turned, climbed in his truck, and shut the door. The air was much cooler, but it did nothing to calm his nerves. He needed to stay the hell away from Maddie, not be talking to her and sure as hell not getting in the middle of her and Ethan. Aside from his own raging hormones that couldn’t handle being within a hundred feet of her, her life was on the line.

  If he refused, that could make Ethan even more suspicious.

  “Yeah, sure. I’m a little tied up right now, but I’ll give her a call when I get back to the hotel tonight.”

  “All right, thanks.”

  They disconnected and Nate dropped his head back on the seat. Jesus Christ, this was getting crazy. Not only was he lying to Ethan, but now he had to act as a mediator between him and Maddie. He wasn’t in any shape to talk to her. Not after witnessing her groping the sleazy sonofabitch Carlos.

  His gaze fell to the clock on the dash, 4:30 p.m. Maddie had sent him a text last night from the encrypted phone he’d given her, telling him she’d be on the yacht for most of the day. He couldn’t risk reaching out to her while she was with him.

  An image of Maddie, naked and glistening, while hair-covered Carlos pumped into her flashed across his mind. He rubbed his palms over his eye sockets. If she was fucking him, he would lose his mind. All he wanted to do was take her full mouth into his as he had the night of the wedding.

  And yeah, have her naked and under him too.

  His teeth sank into his tongue. This was too dangerous. He’d pay Maddie a visit tonight and tell her he was going to assign someone else to the case.

  He couldn’t continue torturing himself and lying. Enough was enough.

  * * * *

  The soft click of the lock sounded and the door swung open. A pool of light shone through the hall, its glow stopped just short of his toes. Darkness washed over the room and the door slammed shut. A light flicked on almost instantly.

  “Jesus!” Maddie shrieked, her hand slammed against her chest and her purse flung against the wall. Her dark eyebrows snapped over her eyes. “What the hell are you doing here? You gave me a damn heart attack,” she hissed. Her hair waved in soft, wild tendrils over her shoulders, and her sunglasses sat high on her head. She wore miniscule white cotton shorts and some kind of loose, hanging thing over her gold bikini top, which did absolutely nothing to hide her cleavage and soft skin below her belly-button.

  He got to his feet and shifted his pants, but it didn’t create any more room for his soldier. He pressed his finger to his lips. He’d gone through her apartment and hadn’t found any bugs or surveillance devices. That didn’t mean Carlos hadn’t planted anything on her.

  Maddie’s hand rested on her hip, and her eyes flashed at him. “Well? What are you—”

  Her soft, flowery perfume wafted to his nos
trils as he closed the gap between them. The slim lines of her brows creased with confusion. He held his finger to his lips again and took her cloth beach bag from her arm. He dug through it, while Maddie’s foot tapped the smooth linoleum under their feet.

  Nothing but clothes and female crap. It didn’t fit Carlos’s bill if he weren’t suspicious of Maddie. The slim line of a small zipper caught his eye. He opened it and fished inside. His fingers closed over a small round device, no bigger than a dime.

  He pulled it out and opened his hand.

  Maddie gasped, and her hands fluttered to her throat. Her wide blue eyes rounded on his. Fear, raw and sharp, flashed shadows across her face.

  “It’s a GPS tracking device.” He dropped it back in her purse and folded his arms over his chest.

  Her shoulders sank and she leaned back against the wall, her hands poised at her temples. “Oh, my god, that scared the shit out of me.”

  “I take it you haven’t been checking your house or belongings regularly?”

  Her eyes met his. “He’s never been here. I’m not stupid, I know how to work undercover and I’ve taken even more precautions this time. My badge and credentials are hidden and—”

  Nate shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. It’s just a matter of time before he has someone come here while you’re working and plants some audio bugs.” Irritation rippled through him. “You need to be more careful, dammit. You’re lucky that wasn’t an audio bug.”

  Her jaw tensed and her eyes dropped to the floor. His shoulders braced in anticipation of her hot temper flaring, but it didn’t come. Her slim, tanned legs straightened as she pushed away from the wall. Her hands fidgeted in front of her and her gaze lifted to his.

  She was so damn beautiful she made his gut twist. If something happened to her… it would be his fault.

  “I feel so violated. I know it’s just a tracking device, but I thought he was starting to trust me.”

  His fingers flexed at his sides, itching to touch her. He balled his hands into fists. She took a step closer.

  “Men like Carlos don’t trust anyone. The fact that he’s letting you even a little bit into his circle only proves that he’s suspicious of you. You need to be really careful, Maddie.” His throat tightened on the words.

  She stopped within inches from him, the heat from her body radiated to his, calling him. His eyes dipped to her exposed belly and his tongue burned with the need to taste her. He dragged his gaze back up to her face. Uncertainty crinkled her smooth forehead. For as long as he’d known Maddie, she’d never shown weakness, never faltered.

  Her small, pink tongue came out to swipe her bottom lip and his muscles twitched in response.

  “You have to watch everything you say. Don’t trust anyone, no co-workers, neighbors… no one, got it?”

  “Of course. I wouldn’t anyway.”

  “One more thing,” he said and pulled his phone from his pocket. He brought up the email from his colleague Josh, pulled the images to life and turned the screen to face her.

  Her breath hissed out and a tinge of green replaced her golden tan. “Oh my god…” she croaked.

  “That’s Fabian Acosta. He was one of Carlos’s men, do you recognize him?”

  She shook her head, her knuckles pressed to her teeth.

  “He’s the last man to snitch on Carlos. His body was found the other day. Now do you comprehend the game you’re playing?”

  Her throat moved as she swallowed, and her eyes, the color of the depths of the ocean, turned glassy. “I know he’s dangerous for god’s sake.”

  “Did you know cutting out the tongues of snitches before murdering them is a signature move of his?”

  She sucked in a deep breath as if summoning strength from a deep well of water and shook her head. “No, but thanks for the image.”

  “It’s not too late to back out, Maddie.”

  She snorted and dropped her forehead to her fingers. “Are you kidding? He’d hunt the country looking for me if I bailed. I might as well just tell him our plan.” She lifted her chin and pulled her shoulders back. “I’m not quitting, Nate. I’ve come too close and am in too deep. This could be over in a couple weeks and he could finally be in prison. We have to continue.”

  He rolled his shoulders back but it didn’t ease the tension. He’d been stupid to think Fabian’s fate would sway her. When Maddie dug her teeth into something, she was worse than a bloody pit bull.

  “Why Carlos?”

  Her gaze flicked over his face. “What do you mean? He’s a monster and needs to be in prison.”

  “’Course he does. But so do a lot of other people. I want to know what’s making you so determined to go after him specifically.”

  Her line of vision shifted away from his gaze just enough for him to catch that she was hiding something. “Dammit, tell me. Do you really think I won’t be able to find out? Save me the work.”

  She sighed, shifted her weight to her other foot making her hip jut out. “Last year my best friend Zoe’s sister came to Miami. She was twenty-one years old and was here on spring break…only she refused to come home. She got involved with Carlos and he got her hooked on cocaine and crystal meth.” Her throat tightened on the next words she had to say. “She died in an alleyway.”

  Nate rubbed his hand over his face. “Fuck, Maddie. You can’t—”

  She snagged his elbow, shaking his arm. “It’s not just that. What he did to Leila makes me want to see him in prison, but that’s not my fuel. He’s a terrible man, a dangerous one. And since Ethan has put up road blocks preventing me from getting into the FBI—”

  He lowered his hand and met her hard, determined stare. “You want to take him down because he’s a big fish and use that as a leg up to get in?” He didn’t need to ask the question. The fire in her eyes spoke volumes. With her background, she was a shoo-in for an agent. She had a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, had worked undercover, and now that he knew her reason for transferring to the Narcotics Unit, he had to question if Carlos had been her motive in the first place. Hell, of course it was. Knowing Maddie, she’d strategically stacked the deck in her hand of cards.

  Add to all that her martial arts training. Maddie was lethal, smart… and more qualified than some of the guys he’d worked with over the years. But he agreed with Ethan… this line of work was dangerous.

  It was on the tip of his tongue to talk her out of it, though he’d tried already. He wanted to shake her, to knock some sense in her head, and yeah, maybe he could now understand where Ethan’s overbearing streak was coming from. Part of Nate still wanted to step away from the case in the hope doing so would force her to drop it. But even without him, she’d still complete this stupid suicide mission—only it’d be with another agent who didn’t give a rat’s ass about her well-being. The mission was well into production, and there was no way his superiors would pass up the opportunity to take down Carlos Santiago. Nope. His fate was sealed.

  As if she sensed his temptation to pull back, her fingers tightened on his forearm. “It was the perfect opportunity. I’m safer doing undercover work here in Miami than I was in Seattle. You know how risky it is when you’re on a case and people in your community know you. I was limited there.”

  Hell, she was right. With cases of this magnitude they would have hired someone who wasn’t local. But he hated that she had a personal interest in this. It made it that much more perilous.

  “I need to do this, Nate.” She wet her lips and her eyes turned glassy. “For myself. This is all I want to do with my life, it’s who I am.” Her soft, broken words tore at his heart. He’d disagreed with Ethan for years about his interference with Maddie’s career, now he was crossing a boundary of no return.

  But he couldn’t say no. Aside from the fact that she’d already flung herself into the center of the storm, her determination impressed the hell out of hi
m.

  She’d make a damn good agent.

  “If we’re going to do this, you need to listen to me, Maddie. That cocky streak of yours,” he said, pinching the tip of her button nose. “Could get you killed in the blink of an eye. The only reason I’m still on this case is because I know you’ll go ahead with or without me.”

  She folded her hands together in front of her abdomen. “Thank you,” she said, the words slipping from her lips and winding their way into his heart. He grunted in response. Her fingers drifted lower to smooth over a wrinkle in her shorts. His pulse thundered through his temples.

  “Am I safe here?” Her throat moved over a swallow.

  Christ. His shoulders loosened and he folded her into his arms, crushing her against his chest. That small, tiny show of trepidation cut through him. He could count on one hand how many times he’d caught a streak of fear in her face. She always held such a tight front, that when it cracked, it was as if a piece of her was leaking out.

  He burrowed his face in her hair and her scent filled him. Her face snuggled against his chest and her hands curled around him. The top of her head sat just below his chin. Her body was so much slimmer than his, yet firm muscle lay beneath her slight frame. His hunger ate through him. The need to kiss her, to take away her fear, to protect her, burned inside him. And he couldn’t do fuck-all about it, and never would. He was a damn coward. If he held her tight enough, he might be able to resist tearing her clothes off.

  “Nate?” Her cautious, unsteady voice broke his thoughts.

  He closed his eyes as the scent of pineapple and coconut from her shampoo tickled his taste buds. “Yeah?”

  “Why did you leave that night?”

  He pressed the tip of his tongue to the back of his teeth until it ached. He didn’t want to talk about that night. About how close he’d been to having her, to filling her… to betraying his best friend. He shouldn’t be here. And he sure as hell shouldn’t be touching her. But no matter how much he willed himself to let go, he couldn’t break away.