Femme Fatale

by Doranna Durgin

  “It was,” Mick agreed. “The only thing missing was the clown.”

  “Funny.”

  “Not terribly so.” Mick sipped his drink as the server deposited Kylee’s chocolate in front of her.

  Kylee took out money.

  “Put your money away, sheila,” Mick growled. “The least I can do is buy you a drink.”

  Disgusted, Kylee put the money under the chocolate, which she intended not to drink.

  “I’ll buy my own drink,” Kylee said.

  “With your ill-gotten gain?” Mick asked.

  “I’m not a thief.”

  “No, you’re an American stuntwoman—”

  “Stunt person.”

  “—who breaks into people’s boats.”

  Kylee hesitated. “Creepstof Scherba is not a nice guy.”

  “Creepstof?” Mick’s lips twitched again.

  Kissable, Kylee thought. Those lips are definitely kissable. “My pet name for him.”

  He scowled, which was definitely no improvement, but Kylee still thought the overall effect was sexy. She felt the immediate pull toward him. Sitting there across from him like strangers who had just met, it was easy to fantasize that they had just met. She wondered what it would be like to run her hands across the hard, sculpted planes of his chest, to kiss him, to feel the heat of him against her as he—

  “Are you listening, sheila?” he asked.

  Kylee snapped out of the daydream, irritated with herself for allowing her attention to lapse. “Yes.”

  He shook his head. “You are definitely in the wrong line of business. Or is this your first foray into the burglary?”

  “I got away from you last night,” Kylee pointed out.

  Mick cursed. “Pet names for your targets. Electronic gadgets and gizmos. You act like this is some kind of game.”

  “I don’t think it’s a game,” Kylee objected, but she knew that part of her did.

  “Yeah, you do. That’s why you met me here.”

  “I didn’t meet you here.” Kylee put some fire in her voice. She pointed at the shop across the street. “I just happened to be shopping and saw you.”

  “You’re behaving like a stupid little girl, sheila.” Mick pulled his sunglasses off and looked at her with smoldering eyes. “Meeting me here was one of the stupidest things you could have ever done. For all you know, I could have a sniper up in one of those buildings around us.”

  “I wasn’t worried about that,” Kylee said, feeling a cold prickle between her shoulder blades.

  “And why not?”

  “Because,” she said, winging it, “because my two snipers would have taken your sniper out.” She pointed at him. “And you, too.”

  Mick was frozen for a moment, then he broke out in harsh, derisive laughter that attracted the attention of several people around them.

  Kylee immediately felt self-conscious. How could she possibly be attracted to such a man? He was a jerk. It had to be the assignment.

  Mick recovered. “I know my principal is a bad man. That’s why I came here to warn you.”

  “Then why are you working for him?”

  “That’s my business, sheila, and none of yours.” Mick’s face looked stony. “It’s time to stop playing games, darlin’, and go on home.”

  “I’m not playing games.”

  “Yes, you are. But the thing is, I don’t know if you’re more greedy or more driven by the thrill of it all.”

  “There’s no thrill in meeting you,” Kylee said, and she knew that she was lying so badly all she could do was hope he didn’t see right through her.

  “You’re busted, sheila,” he grated. “They know who you are, and they’ll be looking for you now. Scherba is concerned about you. I saw that in him last night. And not only that, but I don’t know who this other team is that you’ve dragged in.”

  “What other team?”

  “The men that tried to snipe you today.”

  Kylee felt confused. “Those were Creepstof’s men.”

  “No,” Mick responded. “They weren’t. I know my principal’s men, and those men weren’t his.”

  “I didn’t bring them here.”

  “They were after that pretty little neck of yours, darlin’. And they’d have killed you if I hadn’t been there.”

  “They wouldn’t have killed me.”

  Mick swore. “You’ve got a mighty high opinion of yourself.”

  Kylee met his hot gaze without flinching. “Yes.”

  “You’re wrong.”

  “What about you?” Kylee asked. “Everything I’ve seen about you says that you’re one of the good guys. But you’re working for Creepstof, who is definitely one of the bad guys. And then there’s the fact that the CIA no longer wants your services.” That had been in the Stony Man file, but there had been no reason given for the change.

  Mick put his sunglasses back on. “How did you know about that?”

  “Maybe I’m not as inept as you think.”

  “Oh, you are, sheila. You are. You’re just full of these wicked little surprises, is all. But those tricks, you see, they get you dead a little later, but they get you just as dead.”

  “I’m doing all right.”

  “Wrong. You’re just too inexperienced or greedy to know you’re so far in over your head. Those men who came for you today, I figure they’ll be back. They won’t quit. And if you bring them around my principal, you’re just going to make my job harder. I can’t allow that.”

  “Maybe you don’t have a choice.”

  Mick leaned forward in his seat. “I have a choice, darlin’. That’s why I came here and waited for you.”

  “You don’t want to get too close,” Kylee warned. “If you make any sudden, overt moves, my snipers will take you out.” She’d acted in a similar situation in a movie a year ago. The dialogue came naturally.

  “I don’t, do I?” Mick’s tone was daring.

  “No.” But Kylee knew her reply didn’t sound convincing. She wouldn’t have believed herself.

  “You’re right, sheila,” he said. “I don’t want to get too close. But I can.”

  Before she could move, Mick leaned forward and kissed her.

  Get away! Get away!

  The voice screamed in the back of Kylee’s head, but again she ignored it and gave herself over to his kiss. She felt his hot lips against hers with almost bruising intensity. And she felt her body responding, growing warmer and tingling. She had to stop. But she didn’t. She opened her mouth and allowed him entry. His hand curled behind her head, stroking the back of her neck. Her senses swam and she knew some of her alertness dimmed. She was suddenly the most vulnerable she had ever been on a mission.

  And just as unexpectedly and quickly as he’d begun the kiss, Mick broke it off. He drew back and tried to act unaffected, but Kylee saw the flush in his cheeks, heard his slightly ragged breathing.

  He stood, and more of his reaction to her was visible. “Go home, sheila,” he growled angrily. “Go home before you get us both killed.” Then he walked away, never looking back.

  Kylee watched him and didn’t know what she was supposed to do. Half a block away, he turned a corner and was gone, and the kiss was still burning on her lips.

  The sat-phone in her handbag rang. She answered. “Hello.”

  “Well,” Barbara said, “that was interesting.”

  Feeling guilty and confused, Kylee glared at the sky, imagining the satellite 23,000 miles out in space that stared down at her. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “Meeting him there doesn’t seem like such a good idea.”

  “I don’t think he’s a bad guy.”

  “Oh, and you definitely have the emotional distance you need to make that decision.”

  “Yes. I’m calm. I’m alert. I was just feeling him out about the possibility of recruiting him to our side. Having someone inside Creepstof’s castle, so to speak, would be a definite plus.” Surely Barbara couldn’t argue with that.


  “I see. Well, while you sit there feeling so calm and alert, you might want to take our bug off the back of your collar.”

  Feeling like an idiot, Kylee reached to the back of her blouse and found the miniature audio receiver with her fingertips. There was no doubt that it was the same device she’d placed on him earlier when she’d kissed him so unexpectedly.

  Damn you, Mick Stone. But she had to smile. So you’re a game player, too. That was something to know. She juggled the bug in her palm. “So what do we do?”

  “You go back to the safe house,” Barbara said. “Get some rest and lie low. In the meantime, I’ll poke around the situation and see if we can leverage any more Intel. Whatever Egorov’s scheme is, the clock is ticking.”

  Mick Stone couldn’t get the memory of the woman’s lips from his mind. Even during the long walk back to the Vltava River and Guilty Pleasures, even through the circular route he’d chosen to insure that he wasn’t followed, his thoughts seemed consumed by her. He cursed himself. When he was on the job, he was always a professional.

  The woman was taking the edge off his game and he resented her and his own weakness.

  Still, he’d scared her today. When he’d found the tracking device on his shirt collar, he’d gone to the café and sat, hoping she would be drawn out of whatever hidey-hole she’d chosen for herself. He’d been about to give up when he’d noticed her in the shop across the street.

  But now, surely now he’d put enough righteous fear in her that she would stay away. Her gadgets were impressive. The tracking device had been state-of-the-art, letting him know that whoever was paying her was wealthy and resourceful. Of course, Krystof Scherba wouldn’t attract any other kind of enemies.

  That was why Mick and Josef were getting paid so handsomely. That, and the fact that they probably had the cleanest record of all the security staff that Scherba employed.

  Even before he stepped aboard the catamaran, Mick knew something was wrong. The noon sun burned down onto the river, raising silver highlights from the ripples left by boats and the river’s natural currents. Scherba normally remained belowdecks during the heat of the day, either working on the computer or sleeping because he was a nocturnal predator.

  “Stone,” Scherba said, seated at a table in the stern. Radu stood at the man’s side, arms folded across his chest and looking completely menacing.

  “Mr. Scherba,” Mick replied politely, centering himself. Josef wasn’t in sight. If things went badly, Mick figured he could throw himself over the boat’s side and swim for it.

  “Did you enjoy lunch?” Scherba asked.

  “What’s this about, Mr. Scherba?”

  Scherba looked displeased. “That’s exactly what I would like to know. I heard you had lunch with a woman a short time ago.”

  Mick shrugged. “There are a lot of women in this city.”

  “And you were at the movie set this morning.”

  So he had been seen. Mick took a tense breath. There were a dozen men on the boat’s deck, and all of them belonged to Scherba. “Sight-seeing.” That sounded lame, but he wasn’t exactly at his best. He couldn’t help thinking that if he was in danger, Kylee Swain was as well.

  “A woman,” Scherba mused, “who vaguely resembles the description of the woman who invaded my boat last night. A boat that you have been hired to protect.”

  “I was hired to protect you,” Mick countered. It was splitting hairs, but it was also the truth. “And the woman I had a coffee with was brunette. Not blond.”

  “In any case, she eluded the men I had following her.”

  A knot of tension released in Mick’s gut. If she had eluded Scherba’s men, maybe she’d have the sense to get herself clear of the situation.

  “Even if this is not the same woman,” Scherba went on, “I find it disturbing that you, who have shown no interest in any of the women I have brought aboard this boat, suddenly find yourself in the company of two. Or possibly only one. Especially after entry was gained on my boat.”

  “I don’t know what you’re suggesting, Mr. Scherba. If you don’t like the protection I’m giving you, we can terminate this contract immediately.”

  “No,” Scherba said. “That won’t be necessary. I have you, Stone, and I’d rather see if I can smoke your partner or partners out of the woodwork.”

  A man rose behind Mick. His instincts screamed a warning at him even as the catamaran rolled on a wave and revealed the man’s short shadow on the deck in front of him. He turned to run, but something bit into the back of his neck. Putting a hand up, he felt the feathered dart there.

  Tranquilizer, Mick realized as the drug whirled through his head and distanced the world from him. He tried to reach the boat’s railing and dive over, but Radu was there like a stone wall. The big man lifted his fist and swung toward Mick’s face. With the drug in his system, Mick couldn’t escape the blow.

  Darkness shut him down immediately.

  Chapter 6

  Half an hour after ditching the tails she’d picked up after the conversation with Mick Stone, Kylee returned to her safe house. Losing the tails hadn’t been hard, and hadn’t even worked off the frustration she felt after talking with Mick. She’d come to the conclusion that he was insufferable, and she looked forward to breaking into Scherba’s computer files under Mick Stone’s nose.

  In over her head. Ha! Well, they’d see about that.

  The safe house came equipped with a satellite phone, television, a notebook computer and a fully stocked kitchen. It was a small third-floor walk-up apartment that was larger on the inside than it looked. The walls were reinforced and could take a direct hit from a tank. The safe house also had three exit routes.

  Kylee raided the refrigerator and found a tin of cinnamon rolls. Once the stove was heated, she popped the rolls in and the small apartment filled with the smell of baking bread and cinnamon. Maybe it wasn’t chocolate, but sugar would take the edge off her frustration with her situation and with the man. She just hoped it would also remove all those memories of his kiss.

  As the rolls baked, she paced the small living room and watched the television coverage of the attack at the film location. No one knew why the attack had taken place or who was behind it. Everyone was aware that one of the stunt crew was missing, and the picture that was circulated to the viewing audience was several years out of date. The film company didn’t have a good photo because Kylee wasn’t featured in the movie.

  The Czech police didn’t identify the two men Mick Stone had killed, but the Stony Man intelligence teams had. Both men were part of Kapoch Egorov’s terrorist regime, and they were connected to the team that had confronted Bethany Riggs in Cape Town.

  There was no doubt that Egorov had sent them to Prague. He obviously knew that Bethany had gotten something important from Lyeta Denisov before the woman had been killed.

  Barbara had arranged to get a message to Kylee’s parents and to the film company that she was all right. Actual phone conversation would come later when the proper cutouts were made. Scherba and Egorov had people in their employ capable of putting a phone tap on her parents’ phones and tracing the call back within a minute. One phone call would have possibly put Kylee back into the crosshairs of Egorov’s henchmen.

  When the rolls were ready, Kylee slathered them generously with white icing that was nearly pure sugar. The rolls were hot and soft and sticky, and she knew the sugar would slow her system down.

  She ate half of the rolls and would have finished the other half but Barbara called. Kylee knew it was the mission controller immediately: no one else had the number.

  “We’ve got a problem,” Barbara said.

  “Fine,” Kylee said. “And how are you doing now that you’ve been cooped up in a safe house, cut off from the outside world for almost two hours, not allowed to call home to let your mom know that you’re okay—knowing full well that she’s going to hold it against you and that you’re going to get interminable lectures about calling home after you’re shot
at, which, by the way is going to be a new lecture because your mom never had a clue you were in the spy business, and—”

  “What have you eaten?”

  Kylee eyed a dollop of white icing on her thumb. “Nothing,” she answered, feeling a little guilty. She licked the icing from her thumb. She wasn’t so guilty that it would ruin her appetite.

  “I thought you were supposed to go to the safe house and relax till I called,” Barbara said.

  “This is relaxed.” Kylee eyed the remaining cinnamon rolls. And she could have relaxed, too. If Mick Stone hadn’t stayed on her mind so much. “I’ve got more relaxing to do. Unless you have something else in mind.”

  “Scherba evidently doesn’t trust Mick Stone anymore. When Stone got back to the boat, Scherba confronted him, then had one of his men shoot Mick with a tranquilizer dart.”

  The announcement slammed into Kylee’s gut with the force of a wrecking ball. Part of the reason she had been driven crazy during the past two hours had been Mick Stone. She’d kept thinking about the kiss and the way he had held her so tight in the alley, about the way his hard, muscled body had fit so comfortably next to hers last night.

  “You saw them do that?” Kylee asked, knowing Barbara had, through the sat-recon, or the mission controller wouldn’t ever have said anything.

  “Yes. After this morning, Scherba probably suspects Stone helped you get away last night.”

  Kylee cursed and started pacing. “I did that on my own.”

  “I know. We’re pretty sure Mick is still alive.”

  Kylee vented a sigh of relief. She’d take one of Barbara’s guesses over most mission controllers’ facts any time. “Mick is still aboard the boat?”

  “No. He’s in a panel truck headed south out of town. The audio receiver you put on him this morning was coated with radioactive dust that we can track for seven to ten days. Even if he’d showered, the dust would have stayed in his skin for that time.”

  Kylee covered the cinnamon rolls and shoved them in the refrigerator. “I need transportation.”