“Okay. Okay. I need your help anyway. I’m here with a coworker. We’re doing some counseling at the medical clinic a few blocks up the street. She didn’t show up this morning for a session. I couldn’t get her on her cellphone, so I started looking for her.”
“And you thought she might be in Claudio’s?”
“No. I walked farther than I intended. I stopped to get my bearings, and that was when that odious man pushed me inside the bar. Since I found myself in there, I thought I’d ask if they’d seen her.”
“And almost got yourself raped and killed, too.”
“Thankfully, that didn’t happen. But my friend is still missing.”
“When’s the last time you saw her?”
“Last night, around midnight. We had some snacks in my room, and then she left. Her room is three doors down from mine.”
“Which hotel are you staying in?”
“The Hotel Cali.”
“Did you contact the police?”
“Not yet.” She grimaced. “I’ve heard they’re not always cooperative.”
“No? Really? I’m shocked.”
“Sarcasm isn’t helpful.”
“You’re right.” He glanced back toward the bar and then looked at his watch.
“Look”—she backed up a step—“if you’re meeting someone, don’t worry. I’ll be fine. I’ll just go—”
“Shut up, Bradford.” He said the words almost absentmindedly. “We’ll find your friend.”
Anna wanted to smack herself upside the head as it abruptly occurred to her that Aidan was here on an LCR mission. The shock of seeing him, along with her worry for Carrie, had obscured everything else. Had she inadvertently messed up a rescue?
“Aidan, did I—”
“Come on.” He grabbed her wrist and started pulling her farther away from the bar. And farther away from her hotel.
“Did I mess up a mission? If you’re here on LCR business, don’t let me stop you. I don’t want—”
“I’m not on LCR time right now.”
“So I didn’t screw up a rescue attempt?”
“No.”
The answer was abrupt and blunt, telling Anna that if she persisted, she risked alienating him. Since she needed his help, she decided to table her questions until later. But she couldn’t help but wonder why Aidan Thorne, an LCR Elite operative, would be here in Cali, Colombia. Had he come here on his own time? If so, for what reason?
Her mind whirling with questions, she kept up with Aidan as he strode down the street as if he owned it. Where did that kind of confidence come from? And why, oh, why did she find it and him so fascinating? A man who had made it clear that being around her was the last thing he wanted. She still didn’t know why he didn’t like her. She assumed she just pissed him off on general principle.
When she stumbled over a stone on the sidewalk, Aidan glared at her as if she’d done it on purpose. Then she noticed something else. He was no longer limping. Only a few months ago he had fractured his leg.
“How’s your leg?”
“Fine.”
Realizing getting anything more out of him was futile, Anna gazed about at their surroundings. She wasn’t familiar with this part of the city. It was older but seemed less run-down than the area where she and Carrie were working.
“Where are we going?”
“A friend of mine has a business a couple of blocks away. We’ll talk there.” His hand still wrapped around her wrist, he kept his eyes on the path in front of them. But she knew he was on alert and aware of everything around them.
She stayed silent. Having Aidan Thorne’s help in finding Carrie was a blessing. She had no idea who to go to or where to look.
She told herself that her friend could get herself out of any kind of situation. From the moment she’d met Carrie Easterly, she been impressed with the woman’s calm, determined attitude. In her mid-forties, Carrie was a widow and one of the most dedicated people Anna had ever met. She was compassionate without being emotional or condescending. Her no-nonsense demeanor inspired confidence. Carrie was also the most reliable person in the world. If she said she would be somewhere, then it would take something major to make her break that promise.
And that was Anna’s biggest fear. That something major had happened to her kindhearted friend.
They stopped in front of a small grocery store. Instead of going inside, Aidan turned to look down at her. The scowl was in full force, but she also saw a tinge of worry.
“What’s wrong?”
“There are a few rules you need to observe. Don’t look anyone in the eye. Do not speak to anyone. If anyone speaks to you, look at me before you answer. If I nod, you answer. If not, don’t say a word.”
“I can’t even talk to you?”
“When we’re alone, yes. If we’re with other people, follow those rules.”
“I thought you said this guy was a friend.”
“Friend is a relative term in this part of the world.” With that, he opened the door and pulled her inside.
The instant Aidan walked inside with Anna, he wanted to haul her back out. That twitchy feeling at the back of his neck was going haywire. Since it had started at the bar, right before Anna walked in, he had attributed the feeling to her. Now he wasn’t so sure. Damn, he didn’t like this at all.
A tall, thin man with a thick mustache and wire-rimmed glasses called to him from behind the counter. “Thorne, my friend. Welcome.”
“I need a place, Munoz.”
“Of course. Up the stairs, two doors down.”
Still dragging Anna by the wrist, Aidan went up the stairway. The dim lighting gave off a sinister atmosphere, but out of all the places in the city, this was the one he’d always felt the safest. Until today. Something wasn’t right. But he needed to talk to Anna, and getting her off the street, out of sight, was a priority.
They stopped at the designated door. Aidan pulled his gun and pressed a finger to his mouth to tell her to keep quiet. So far she’d been amazingly cooperative.
Easing open the door, gun at the ready, Aidan peered inside. The room held a single bed, table and two chairs, and a hot plate. Luxurious accommodations for this part of the city.
With a jerk of his head, he told Anna to go inside. Then, with one last look around the dim hallway, he followed her, closing the door behind him.
She was safe for now, but the next step would be the hardest. He had to get her out of Cali without anyone else seeing them together.
Chapter Three
“So tell me again why you’re here, Anna.”
“I’ve already told you. I’m here to do counseling for the family and children’s center. I came with Carrie Easterly. I work with her occasionally in the States. She said she was coming here and invited me. We thought we could do some good.”
Aidan pulled out a chair for her. Anna wondered if he knew his absentminded actions revealed the man behind the gruff mask of indifference. Aidan Thorne had been raised to be a gentleman. For whatever reason, he fought hard against that upbringing, especially when she was around.
“Do you have a photo of her?”
“I…” She frowned and then jumped from the chair, excited. “Yes. On my phone.” Pulling the phone from her back pocket, she clicked through several photos till she came to the one she had taken last month at her birthday party.
She handed the phone to Aidan. “Carrie’s the older woman in the middle with the short blond hair and glasses.”
“What do you know about her?”
“What do you mean?”
“Personal life? Married? Kids? Boyfriends? Girlfriends? Does she have friends here? Who else came with you? Does she have a reputation for disappearing?”
Anna scrambled to come up with answers to the conglomeration of questions. “She’s widowed. Has two children, two boys, both in college in the States. She has a few gentleman friends, but none that are serious. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia. As far as I know, she has no friends here. She wo
uld have told me if she did.
“We came to Cali alone, but we have a young man, named Miguel, who is helping us. The center assigned him to us. He was the first person I went to when I couldn’t find her. He said he hasn’t seen her since last night when we both went upstairs for bed.
“She’s in trouble, Aidan, I know she is. Carrie would no more disappear on purpose than I would eat snails.”
A little twitch at the corner of his mouth made her think he almost smiled. Despite her worry for Carrie, she wished he would smile. Aidan had a great smile. Only problem was, he never gave her one. Apparently, he saved them for people he liked.
Brushing aside her moment of self-pity, she asked, “So what should we do? Call the police? Or maybe Noah?”
“You contact McCall, he’ll just tell me to investigate.”
“Then can we do that?” She stood again. “Now?”
“You got transportation?”
“No. Miguel runs errands for us, but we haven’t had the need to go anywhere.”
He glanced down at his watch, stood, and walked over to the window. “Five more minutes and we’ll leave.”
“What are you looking for?”
“Lots of things. Right now, I’m looking for our ride.”
“You have a car?”
“Of sorts.”
“How would anyone know to bring one to you here?”
“I arranged for it earlier.”
“Aidan, if you’re not here for LCR, why are you here?”
It didn’t surprise her that he didn’t answer. To almost everyone else, Aidan Thorne kept up a charming façade. For some reason, he had never done that with Anna. She didn’t know why, and part of her resented it. What she wouldn’t give for just one of those beautiful, sexy smiles he gifted to other women. For her, he was either surly, sarcastic, or downright rude. So why in the world did she find him so unbelievably fascinating?
She’d always felt a certain amount of dismayed pity for women who seemed to fall for the guys who were the meanest to them, attributing it to low self-esteem. She could not say that was the reason for her fascination for Aidan. She had a healthy sense of her own worth and didn’t take crap from anyone. But with Aidan, it was different. Not that she let him get away with being rude. She had called him out on his bad behavior more than once. But she also had never walked away from him.
Her training as a psychologist notwithstanding, something about Aidan Thorne spoke to her. There was a connection beyond the superficial one he tried to enforce. Call her crazy, a very relative term in her book, but this man, beyond any other man she’d ever known, made her yearn.
“He’s here. Let’s go.”
Accepting that this was the best she was going to get from him, Anna followed him out the door. She knew his full concentration needed to be on their surroundings, so she did her best to help him look out for any danger. It would be helpful to know exactly what he was looking for and why, but she could at least alert him if she saw anything suspicious.
Instead of going out the front, the way they’d arrived, Aidan led her through the store and into a storage room. They crossed to the other door. Before opening it, he stopped and looked down at her. For an instant, an infinitesimal one, she saw a touch of tender warmth in his eyes. Then, as if it had never happened, the cool arrogance was back. “Stay here for a second.”
He opened the door and walked out. With anyone else, she might have had a thousand questions. But with Aidan, she had total trust in his abilities, his knowledge about what to do.
Trusting him with anything else, though, like her heart? Nope, never going to happen.
Aidan paid the man who’d made the delivery and waited until he’d disappeared around a corner to examine the bike. Offending the man who had provided his transportation would not be taken well. Right now, Aidan figured he had more than enough troubles without adding the hurt feelings of a renowned thief to his list.
Assuring himself that the bike was in good enough shape to get them where they needed to go, he took one last glance around and then opened the door for Anna.
He handed her a helmet. “Make sure your hair is secure under it and keep your shield on until we get to your hotel.”
He had to give her credit. She didn’t ask why or even look the least offended. He was well aware that all the extra caution might not be necessary, but he refused to take the chance. Anna was too important to take her safety for granted.
He straddled the bike. The instant she settled in behind him, put her hands on his waist, he was off. Concentrating on keeping them alive kept him from having to think about her soft, fragrant body pressed up against his, the slender hands touching him, or the firm thighs pressed against his. No, he wasn’t thinking about that. At. All.
They drove through the center of town, zigzagging around yellow taxis, other bikers, and the multitude of pedestrians. The open-air market with its millions of diverse scents, heated to a zenith by the soaring temperatures, was an oppressive weight.
He could’ve chosen a less congested road to travel, but the more people around them, the better to blend in and get lost in the crowd. He had no reason to believe that Simon was in Cali, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have people watching. Paranoia and caution had been Aidan’s mainstay for years. He wasn’t going to change now, especially when Anna’s life could be on the line.
He stopped in front of the small hotel. Anna got off the bike. The instant her hands went to her helmet to pull it off, Aidan grabbed her wrist. “Wait till we get inside.”
She nodded, not saying a word. An unwanted and inconvenient feeling tugged at his heart. She really was a trouper.
He swung his leg over and stood, noting that the curtains twitched on the third floor. Someone had noticed them. Still holding Anna’s wrist, he steered her toward the entrance. The minute they were in the lobby, he began to breathe easier.
Turning to her, he unbuckled her chinstrap and pulled the helmet off her head. She shook her hair out in an ultra-feminine way that was a natural part of Anna Bradford. From the top of her thick, lustrous brown hair to the bottom of her long, slender feet, she was pure femininity.
“Where do we go from here?”
“Let go talk to Miguel.”
“He’s usually in the kitchen around this time, eating lunch.”
As they started toward the back, Aidan made note of their surroundings. It wasn’t an expensive hotel, but it had a homey feel to it.
“Has Carrie been to Cali before?”
“A few times. She has some acquaintances here but no one close. Another counselor was supposed to come with her instead of me, but had to cancel at the last minute. So Carrie asked me to come.”
“Have you been on other trips with her?”
“Uh-huh. Two last year. One earlier this year. I promise you, Aidan, she’s a responsible person. She wouldn’t just leave. I’m really afraid something has happened to her.”
He didn’t say it, but he was thinking the same thing. And when people went missing in this part of the world, the outcome was rarely a good one.
Aidan pushed open the kitchen door, stuck his head inside. A couple of men stood in front of a stove. One woman was at a giant sink. He spotted a young man in his late teens sitting on a barstool, eating. They all turned and looked at Aidan, their eyes wary. The kid eating his lunch stopped in mid-chew and swallowed hard.
Aidan pulled Anna into the kitchen with him. The instant the kid spotted her, he sprang from his chair and took off, exiting out a back door.
“Aw, hell.” Aidan took off at run, throwing over his shoulder, “Stay here.”
Not sure who she was more worried for, Aidan or Miguel, Anna followed them. Yes, she’d been told to stay put, but Miguel didn’t know Aidan. He might think he meant him harm. And the reason behind Miguel running was more than a little suspicious. Did he know something about Carrie’s disappearance after all?
She went through the door and found herself in a small storage ro
om. Hearing no noises, she went farther and spotted another door. She peeked out and then gasped. Aidan had Miguel up against a brick wall. The kid’s feet were dangling, not touching the ground, and Aidan’s hands were wrapped around Miguel’s neck.
“Where is she, kid?”
Miguel’s dark eyes were wide with fear.
Surprised at Aidan’s behavior, Anna said firmly as she walked to them, “Let him go, Aidan.”
“Not till he talks.”
“He can’t talk if he can’t breathe.”
“He can breathe.” He paused, then added, “For now.”
Shaking Miguel a little, Aidan growled, “Answer the question, kid, and I’ll let you go.”
Apparently seeing her as his only hope, Miguel gasped out, “Señorita Anna, help me.”
“She’s not the one you need to be talking to, Miguel. Tell me where Carrie is, and I’ll let you go. It’s as simple as that.”
Miguel shook his head. “I don’t know anything.”
“Then why’d you run?”
“Because I know who you are. You are the Thorne. You have a reputation of being ruthless and deadly.”
Aidan’s laughter, incongruent considering the situation, sounded genuine. “Good try, kid. Trying to boost my ego like that. But you didn’t run when you saw me. You ran when you spotted Anna, which tells me you’re more worried about her than me.”
Aidan shook him again. “You know where her friend is, and you’re going to tell me. I got no place to go right now, and holding you here all damn day long is no big deal.”
Big tears rolled down Miguel’s cheeks, and he started sobbing.
Furious, Anna reached out to pull Aidan away from Miguel. Before she could touch him, Aidan had dropped him. “The tears were a good move. Doesn’t mean you’re free, though. You know something. Spill it.”
Miguel looked up at Anna, his eyes filled with sorrow and tears. “I’m sorry, señorita.”
She squatted down and took Miguel’s hand. “What are you sorry for? Do you know where Carrie is?”
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