“Not left in the dust?” He shook his head. “Amen to that, babe. I’ve worked with a clamp on for so many years, I don’t know if I’m able to share.”
That got to the core of their issue and her problem here. “But with me, here, on this, you must, Adam.” She let that sink in before she let him know more. “Or we cannot go on.”
He went still. “Old habits are hard to break.”
She waited.
“My entire identity is tied up with what I do.”
She bit her lip.
“I don’t think anyone has ever quit the service. Ever even tried.”
As the silence in the room lengthened, he added, “A few have gone on to politics.”
She tipped her head in question.
“Not my ambition.”
She arched a brow.
“Mine has always been just finding bad guys and putting them away. Occasionally, I’ve helped a few people get justice, but it was always justice for the state, too.”
She swallowed. Was she losing him here?
He sat forward. “I’ll make you a deal for now. For this.”
She held her breath.
“What I know, what I learn, you’ll know. What resources I have, I’ll use them for this. I owe it to King Saul Boulevard. I owe it to my country. I owe it to myself. And my friend’s sister. At the end of this, when we find out who does this and why, I’ll make a choice.”
She nodded. “I see.”
“You agree?”
“Deal,” she told him, knowing she had to take what he offered and run with it. He was key now to her thinking about this mystery. He knew facts, understood the pharmaceutical issues from a different angle and had experience tracking it. Whether he had been successful or not before this didn’t really matter so much as the fact that he wanted to continue. Continue with her. Continue for her. And she needed him. His clever brain. His smart humor. Yes, she craved him. Like sunshine and rain. And for an excitement and a delight in living that she had never known until he took her in his arms and loved her with that fabulous body.
He tried to smile. His mouth didn’t work.
She rose from her chair. “Come meet two of my staff who can give us the run-down on Abbas and Haller. Maddie and Dan are married. Recently, too. They met while Dan was on a project for the Feds and Maddie was chief of staff to the Speaker of the House.”
“Maddie…” Adam snapped his fingers. “She worked for Paul Trask? Good god. I read about her!”
“She helped to put him away. Dan and she saved each other from Trask’s attempt to kill them and bury what they knew about his operations in south Texas.”
“It’ll be an honor to meet them,” Adam told her. “But why with this? What do they bring to the table?”
“Maddie has a large network of friends and acquaintances. She uses her connections well. To our benefit.” Nicki wiggled her brows. “And Dan has a deft hand with technology. Computers. Decoding. Analysis. He has become invaluable to us here.”
“Which way to the newly married couple?”
Nicki threw Adam a grin and pressed a button. The wall behind her slid silently open and there, at a large glass table, sat her old college friend, Madison, talking quietly with her new husband, tall, fit, Dan Foreman. Dan had his hand on Maddie’s cheek and the tender look in his eyes made Nicki startle. That look. She’d seen it on Dan. Seen it on other men’s faces. But never directed at her. Until now. When she saw it on Adam Molloy’s face every time he kissed her or made love to her.
The shock froze her.
Love was not on her agenda. Never had been. An affair, loose and noncommittal, sure, she could do that. An interlude, fast and hot, always a possibility, but never often. Never an entanglement she sought. But tenderness? Love from a man she knew was so untamed, so talented, so quick and smart? That was the biggest danger. Wasn’t it?
Maddie and Dan turned toward her and grinned, then rose.
“Hey, Nicki!” Dan was first to put out his hand toward her. Because she was the boss and this was the office, he was always professional here. Never hugging her in greeting.
Maddie was more casual, more natural. Fourteen years of friendship between them meant Maddie was going to be less formal. She came over and hugged Nicki, then held her arms to pull back and glance in her eyes. “How are you? Cat gave us headlines. But Dan and I need details!”
Nicki smiled gently. “And we’ve got lots for you both. This is Adam Molloy.”
“Adam,” Dan shook hands, his green eyes wary of the newcomer.
“Hi, Adam,” Maddie greeted him and followed Nicki’s lead to take their seats.
Nicole folded her hands on the table. “Let me tell you first that Adam happened to be in the right place for me at the right time. His ability to do that comes with his nine-to-five job.”
Dan got an astonished look on his face. “Nine to five? Yeah, right.”
“Do tell,” Maddie encouraged with a grin.
“Mossad,” Adam provided.
“No shit,” Dan muttered.
Maddie fell back in her chair. “So you were just out for a stroll on a private beach and managed to see a suspicious character about to hurt our girl, huh?”
Adam tipped his head. “You might say it like this.” Then he explained what he was doing there, why, and how he had helped Nicki survive.
Nicki shifted in her chair. The expression on Maddie’s face told her that her friend could detect a few holes in Adam’s summary. Dan absorbed the tale with a few nods. But Maddie’s cool blue gaze on Nicki’s face made her blush.
She swallowed hard as Adam finished. “And now we have these suspicions of the owners of the resort.”
“And you have to track them,” Dan added. “Who are they?”
When Nicki listed the five, Maddie widened her eyes.
Dan grimaced.
“The manager of the place seems clean,” Adam told them, “but we’re not certain.”
Nicole tapped the table with her fingertips. “We need a complete dossier on all five partners who own the resort. Plus the manager.”
“That’s where I come in,” Dan added. “I’ll get on it.”
“We also need,” Nicki added, “an update on their financial records. Public and private. If you can get the private ones. We suspect they have a few little accounts in the Caymans. Just for emergencies.”
Maddie nodded. “Who doesn’t?”
Adam agreed. “But anything we can get that isn’t in the papers or the bank accounts, that would be a bigger help.”
Maddie grinned. “Just my cup of tea. Who are we talking about?”
Adam rapped his knuckles on the table. “One of the five is an acquaintance of mine. He, of course, would rather forget how we met. But he owes me a favor. A big one. He seems to me to be the easiest to get to.”
“Which is he?” Maddie asked.
“Henri LeClerq.”
“LeClerq. LeClerq.” Maddie frowned for a moment, then brightened. “I went to boarding school in Geneva with his daughter, Marie. Nice man. What’s your connection to him, Adam?”
“Three years ago, I headed a team to find out who was funding the purchase of guns and rockets to Hamas in Gaza. We soon learned it was a group in Iran, but the money made its way through Henri’s private bank in Basel. We were about to make arrangements to close him down when it became clear he had no idea who he was really dealing with. The money had been laundered before it got to him. We cleared him and the bank. Saved his ass. Hence, he owes me.”
Dan whistled. “Good story. He should be grateful.”
Adam nodded. “Very.”
“So you both want to get in to see LeClerq soon?” Maddie asked.
“We do,” Adam nodded.
“I doubt that can happen.”
“Why not?” Nicki asked.
“Because,” Maddie sat forward, “Henri is on his way to Washington for a meeting of private bankers at the World Bank. This is a big event. Bankers from the G-20 co
untries there to talk about the recessions in the States and Europe. Top security. He won’t be available.”
“Can you get a message to him?” Adam asked.
“I’ll try,” she replied.
“Tell him I must see him.”
Her blond brows shot high. “Adam Molloy?”
“None other,” he confirmed.
“Just checking.” She grinned. “I’d guess you’ve had a few other names over the course of your career.”
He gave Maddie a lopsided grin. “I have. Molloy is the real thing, Maddie. Go with it.”
“I will. I’ll see what I can do,” Maddie offered.
“So,” Dan began, “What’s your next move?”
Nicki glanced at Adam. “Henderson?”
Adam got to his feet. “Henderson in the Caribbean.”
Chapter Seven
Adam looked out the window of the Nemesis private jet as it winged its way over the blue waters of the Caribbean.
“It always looks so calm and beautiful down there,” he told Nicki, seated in the plush chair across from him. “You’d never know the kind of crooked filth that goes on just beneath the surface.”
“That’s the damn truth.” She sipped lightly at her glass of wine.
They’d left Maddie and Dan in charge of things back at headquarters. Five minutes after the initial briefing Dan was already busy searching for information—public, private and hidden—on the five resort partners. He was also looking for whatever had connected them in the first place. Maddie was pulling strings and exercising her charm to get past Henri LeClerq’s considerable security to wangle an audience for Adam and Nicki.
“The car will be waiting for us when we land?” he asked.
She nodded. “That was Cat on the phone a few minutes ago. “The man we use whenever we have to stage an op in the Caribbean will be waiting for us at the private airport with what we need. He’s also the one arranging the boat to take us to Henderson’s island.”
“Pretty dicey owning an island so close to the international water line of Cuba.” He swallowed the rest of his drink.
“I’m sure he thinks it will keep unwanted visitors away. You can’t land without his permission and stray boats won’t know exactly the waterline of demarcation.”
“But your guy knows exactly how to take us in?”
Nicki winked at him. “Trust me. “He took me here twice before. Anyway, you can’t get close unless he okays it.” She looked at her watch. “We’ll have about four hours after we land to check into the hotel and get to the marina. Henderson’s still recovering from that emergency appendectomy and he’s not so young anymore.”
“I’m not sure it was a good idea to let him know we’re coming,” Adam mused. “He could have his helicopter pick him up and move him someplace else before we get to his island.”
She shook her head. “He owes me big-time. If he runs out on me, I’ll be after his ass and he’s very aware of it.”
“Your call.” His grin held a glint of the devil. “That means we have to occupy ourselves while we’re waiting. Did you have something in mind?”
“Oh,” she drawled, “I think we can come up with something intriguing.”
* * * * *
Great Exuma Cay was an oven, the hot sun burning everything in sight, the air so moist and thick it was nearly suffocating. But it was mild compared to the heat sizzling in the hotel room where Adam and Nicki stood facing each other. They’d practically torn their clothes off the moment the door locked behind them but now it seemed they wanted to hit the Pause button and slow things down.
The ceiling fan turned lazily overhead, creating a soft breeze on her naked skin but it did little to lower Nicki’s body temperature as Adam’s hot gaze raked over her.
“Jesus, you’re a wet dream walking.” His voice was low and guttural with arousal. “I’m going to have to figure out how to control myself in public. I don’t think I want to walk into Henderson’s house with a raging hard-on poking through my jeans.”
Nicki’s laugh was throaty and warm. “Then I guess we’d better do something about it.”
She dropped gracefully to her knees in front of him and wrapped her slim fingers around his thickly swollen cock. One tiny bead of moisture sat temptingly at the slit on the plum-colored head. She lapped it gently with her tongue, making a low humming noise in the back of her throat. Adam sucked in his breath, a hissing sound that cut through the air.
He held himself rigid, hands at his sides, but when Nicki opened her mouth and slowly slid her lips down the length of his shaft he tunneled his fingers through her hair and gripped her head.
“Oh, fuck,” he growled. “Oh, shit, Nicki. Your mouth is…incredible.”
She made that little humming noise again and began to slide her mouth up and down, swirling her tongue around his cock with each movement. Every muscle in his body was rigid, taut with anticipation as she sucked and lapped and pulled on him. When she slipped one hand between his thighs to cup his sac, fire shot through his groin and a growl roared up from his chest.
The harder she sucked, the tighter he gripped her head. Almost unconsciously he rocked his hips, fucking her mouth as her tongue danced along his turgid flesh. He’d had a lot of women in his life—far too many, some might say—but no one had ever given him the pleasure that Nicole Welles did, or reached inside him to something he’d thought lost long ago.
He rocked in rhythm with the movement of her mouth, her fingers rolling his balls in a gentle motion that sent heat lightning through his body. He felt the familiar tightening in his groin and the icy tingle at the base of his spine that signaled the rush of his climax. And then it rocketed through him, gripping him and shaking him like a giant fist. He spurted into Nicki’s mouth again and again, his hips thrusting forward with each spasm.
She never eased her motion, swallowing every bit of his cum while her fingers continued to stroke him and her tongue lapped at his shaft. One final shudder and he was spent, leaning weakly over her, still gripping her head, now as much for support as anything else.
One final lick and Nicki rose to her feet. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him, the flavor of his cum still on her lips. The impact made his now soft cock twitch threatening to harden again.
Drawing in a long breath, he exhaled slowly, turned with Nicki in his arms and carried them both down to the bed.
“What’s good for one is good for the other,” he murmured in her ear before plunging his tongue into her mouth.
She was like liquid fire, branding him with the tongue that moments ago had given him so much pleasure. He tore his mouth away from hers to trail it down her body, pausing to nip at each taut nipple. The soft little moans she made were like matches lighting his nerves and he moved his mouth at once to her nearly naked cunt.
“You shaved,” he murmured, running his tongue over the newly bared skin. She’d left only a thin strip of curls covering the outer lips.
“The better to feel you with.” The words were teasing but the tension in her voiced betrayed her instantly rising heat.
Adam’s lean fingers opened the lips of her pussy and he sucked in his breath at the sight of the glistening pink flesh. She was already so wet. So goddamn wet. And hot. When he traced his tongue over the inner lips the heat of her liquid scorched him.
“I’m gonna eat you until you scream,” he promised and thrust his tongue inside her.
Tiny spasms rocked her at once. He gripped her thighs to hold her in place as he worked to give her the same pleasure she’d just given him. It was like having his tongue inside an oven filled with nectar—hot, sweet, addictive. And she was so ready so quickly. Hanging right there on the edge.
He moved one hand up until he found her clit. When he pinched it hard between thumb and forefinger she screamed and convulsed, pouring into his mouth like a vessel. He sucked and pulled until he’d drawn the last drop from her before finally sliding out of her still quivering pussy. Lying down next to her, he p
ulled her into his arms and took her mouth in a hot, hungry kiss. The mixture of their flavors was intoxicating, surging through his body like a drug.
His first thought was, How can I leave her when this is over?
His next was, I am so fucked.
* * * * *
The speedboat they’d picked up at the marina cut through the cerulean water of the Caribbean throwing spray back from the bow. Adam steered as if he’d been doing it forever. Nicki could only think how incredibly hot and masculine he looked standing at the wheel, the breeze ruffling his thick black hair.
As they approached Paul Henderson’s private island another boat roared out from a dock to meet them. She could see three men in the boat, two of them making no effort to hide the assault weapons they carried loosely in their arms. The boat headed in a direct line for them, slowing down only when they came close to Adam and Nicki. Adam throttled back and moved the gear to idle.
“You are in private waters,” the man driving the boat shouted to them. “Turn back at once.”
“We have an appointment with Mr. Henderson,” Nicki shouted back. “Four o’clock.”
“Names,” he said.
“Nicole Welles and Adam Molloy. Mr. Henderson is a friend.”
They waited, boat rocking in the gentle waves while the man spoke into a radio he carried. Finally he nodded.
“Follow us.”
They tied up at the dock next to the other boat and waited patiently while they were searched for weapons. Then they were led up to the house, the armed men close behind them, the radio man in front.
The house itself was a massive building of stone and glass rising from a slight hill and surrounded by lush tropical vegetation. They climbed the steps to the door which the man with the radio opened, and they were ushered inside.
“Follow me,” he told Adam and Nicki, indicating to the two armed men that should also come along.
Paul Henderson was lying on a hospital bed in a room with a wall of windows overlooking the ocean. He turned his head as they approached, and Nicki was struck by how pale and weak he looked.
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