“I’ll try.” She tilted her head to the side.
They were so close he could kiss her if he wanted to.
“Your dad’s going to kill me.”
She flinched as if she’d been slapped.
What exactly had they argued about?
“Come on.” He hefted his bag into a better position and grabbed her larger, rolling bag.
“Where are we going?”
“We need to establish a base. Somewhere we can pay cash, no cameras, off the beaten path.”
“And then what?”
“We need supplies, a contact, something. Then I can find this Luis and get some answers. First things first, you are safe, understand? You are my top priority. Everyone else comes second. Am I clear?”
“I kind of want to kick you in the nuts right now.” She tipped her chin up a fraction.
“I wouldn’t try it if I were you.” He wasn’t above putting her on her ass, and slinging her over his shoulder. Yeah, it would make a scene, but again—her safety came first.
He turned and she stuck close to his side. Together they walked out onto the covered entrance. Several taxis in poor condition sat idling, waiting for guests. Two shuttles were unloading guests and a third sat waiting, empty.
“Come on.” He nudged Hannah forward, aiming at the glossiest shuttle van.
“That goes to the airport,” she whispered.
“I know. Easier to give someone the slip there.”
“Oh.”
“English?” Mason pasted a patronizing grin on his face. He spoke Spanish and a handful of other languages enough to get him by. But whoever wanted Hannah didn’t need to know that.
“Yes.” The driver nodded.
Mason doubted the guy knew more than the necessary phrases, but that was fine.
“You going back to the airport?” He gestured in the general direction.
“Yes, yes.”
“Perfect.”
Mason gathered their bags next to the shuttle to wait for loading and pulled out his phone. He’d grabbed it during his hasty packing but hadn’t actually glanced at it.
Almost dead.
Shit.
He jabbed in Zain’s number and prayed the phone lasted.
“What?” his cousin said after three rings.
Mason put his back to the closest people and switched to speaking in Farsi. Besides Spanish, it was the one language he knew enough to carry on a conversation in.
“We’re in trouble,” he said slowly.
“What happened?” Zain didn’t make the switch, sticking to English, but that was fine. It was Mason’s side of the conversation that mattered.
“Someone tried to drug her, but got me instead. Think they’re after her. Two girls went missing.”
“I can book you on a plane out of there. I don’t know anyone in that area right now, but I bet I can make some friends fast.” Already the computer keys were clicking in the background.
“Can’t do. She won’t leave the other girls.”
“Fuck, Stevens won’t care.”
“I know.”
“What are you going to do?”
“We need a package drop.”
“Mason, you need to get her out of there.”
“It would take me, you, and an army.”
“Then I’d better find you an army.”
“Just a package.”
“I’ll see what I can do, but you better change her mind, Mason. I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
The call cut off. He glanced at the dark screen and cursed.
“What? What happened?” Hannah whispered.
“That was Zain. I’m trying to get us more information about the local sites for our next destination.” He smiled and draped his arm across Hannah’s shoulder.
“Ready to go?” The driver circled them, and gestured to their bags.
“Yes, thank you.” Mason let the driver take Hannah’s two rolling bags, but kept his duffle slung across his chest. “Is it just us going back?”
“To the airport?” The driver hefted first one bag then the other into the van.
“Yes.” Mason nudged Hannah toward the van.
“Yes, yes. Just us.” The driver closed the back of the van.
Mason would have preferred to travel in a pack but he wasn’t going to stick around, waiting for a couple human shields to present themselves. He handed Hannah into the first bench seat and slid in himself behind her. She clenched her hands together so tight her knuckles turned white.
He shouldn’t permit himself to touch her, but this was an extreme circumstance. Mason draped his arm across the back of the seat and wrapped his hand over hers, squeezing them.
Of all the different ways this trip could have gone, this was one of the worst. Not the worst—Hannah was still safe—but it was up there. He hated this for her, but he couldn’t let his emotions get in the way.
The driver climbed behind the wheel, flashed them a grin and started the engine. Mason didn’t draw an easy breath until they passed out from under the covered drive and merged onto the main road leading to the dinky little airport. Even then he kept his eye on their tail. There were dozens of reasons someone might want to kidnap Hannah. She was beautiful, for one, her father had made quite a number of enemies after coming to work for Aegis, and then there was her connection to the Admiral and a whole lot of people who had a beef with the company in general. It could be a crime of opportunity—or a targeted abduction. There was no way to tell until he got his hands on Luis.
When he did...the man was going to pay.
7.
Hannah clutched her luggage handle with one hand and the edge of the phone booth with the other. Mason chattered away in a language she couldn’t even identify. In theory Zain was on the other end of the line. Hopefully it wasn’t her father.
How had this happened? Why her? Could she have dreamed it all last night? Did he really not remember?
There were so many things to be shocked about, she didn’t know what was worse.
The drugging. The missing girls. Someone breaking into her room. The cooperation of the resort staff. Sex with Mason.
He doesn’t remember.
She gulped and leaned against the phone booth. Okay, somehow that one really got her.
He really didn’t remember.
And she could recall every moment in vivid detail.
When he’d woken up, she’d thought maybe he was just hung over. She’d thought he seemed way more relaxed than normal last night. Alcohol was easily a factor. But then the rest? He really had no memory whatsoever about last night. He’d been modest and...normal. Or as normal as a man who’d just figured out he’d been drugged could be.
He’d seen her swimsuit in his room and listened to her flimsy lies without anything jogging loose. How was that possible?
Drugs.
Duh.
He’d said he’d been drugged. Which meant last night was a fluke. It wasn’t real. At least not to him, and that killed a little part of her. Her body remembered what it’d felt like. Muscles she’d never known existed were sore. And what was worse, she wanted to do it again. With Mason. But he didn’t remember. What kind of fair was that? She’d had the best—okay, the only—sex of her life, and the man didn’t even know it.
Christine. Natalie.
Shame stabbed her, drawing blood. What kind of a person was she? The two girls were gone, kidnapped, and she was wrapped up in lustful thoughts.
“Hannah?”
She blinked up at Mason.
“You okay?” He reached for her bigger bag.
“Yeah, sorry—spaced out.”
“I get this is a lot for you, but I need you to stick close to me, keep your eyes peeled, okay? You remember last night. I need for you to stay sharp, tell me if you recognize anyone who might have been at the party. We could be followed.”
“You think so?” She hadn’t even thought of that. After they left the resort, she’d thought they�
�d be fine.
“Until I know why someone targeted you, yes.”
“Why?” There was a reason?
“I’ll brief you when we’re safe. For now, we have to go.” He turned away from her.
“Wait.” She grabbed his wrist and nodded in the other direction. “We should leave the big bag here. In a locker. Everything I need is in this one.” She held up the smaller, rolling bag.
Mason flashed her a brief grin.
“Clever girl. Still have your phone on you?”
“Yeah.”
“Put it in the locker.”
“But...” She paused, rolling the thought around in her head. Shit. “You think they could track my cell phone. That’s why you want me to leave it.”
He pivoted and she followed, melding into the flow of foot traffic to the next terminal without answering. Then again, he didn’t need to. The hard line of his mouth said it all.
It was all much worse than she’d imagined. And here she was stuck on the tiny detail that he did not remember having sex with her.
She followed Mason, eyes on his back. Yeah, she was supposed to watch for familiar faces, but she couldn’t. Not yet.
They’d passed the lockers on their way to the shuttle yesterday. At the time she hadn’t paid any attention to them, but hauling all the bags through the resort made her jealous of Mason’s one little bag.
He opened one of the larger lockers, shoved the bag in, and put both their phones in the front pouch. He fed it a few coins and retrieved the key. Hopefully she’d be able to get it all back before they left, if not—it was just stuff. Clothes. Jewelry. Make-up. She could always get more. They didn’t matter.
“What’s the plan now?” she asked.
Mason straightened and looped an arm around her waist. Her stomach did little pitter patters—except he wasn’t really paying attention to her. Not really. His gaze scanned the terminal, seeing the world in a way she never would, searching out danger.
“We’re going to find someone to take us to a place. Zain has a contact in the area, but the introduction has to happen through a third party because Zain’s not exactly on friendly terms with the contact. The contact is going to get us new IDs, cash, the works.”
“Can’t we just get a taxi?”
“I don’t want to use anyone who answers to someone else. This is Mexico. There are different rules here. Come on.” He took her hand, falling in line behind a large family of Americans.
She wished the family well and hoped they weren’t headed for the same resort she’d been at.
Mason stayed with the family, right on their heels, for thirty yards or so. Without warning, he pulled her off the curb between two taxis and jogged across the street to a small lot of cars.
A man strode parallel to them, heading for a car with flashing tail lights. Mason dropped her hand and sped up, waving his hand. She’d never picked up more than token words in Spanish so it was impossible to understand anything coming out of Mason’s mouth.
She hung back, watching the exchange unfold. If a big guy had come at her, yelling and waving in a parking lot, she’d have freaked out. The man stood his ground, glanced from Mason to the car and back. It wasn’t a shiny new car, but it wasn’t in bad condition either. The man barked out a laugh and held out his hand to Mason, some sort of man test passed. The two shook and the man’s posture relaxed. They were two guys, shooting the breeze and chatting. She edged closer, picking up a word here and there, but the gist of the conversation was lost on her.
What the hell was she doing sticking around? She couldn’t even talk to the locals. Maybe she should go home. Mason was right, she was totally dependent on him. A liability. A risk.
“Come on, José is going to take us to our hotel.” Mason grabbed her suitcase and chunked it in the back seat.
“Our hotel?” She stared at Mason. They had a hotel? Hadn’t they just left one?
“I’ll explain later, honey.” His smile was too bright, too not-Mason. And—achingly—a lot like the man she’s had sex with last night.
She settled into the back seat while the men buckled up in the front and proceeded to ignore her, which suited her just fine. She had too many squishy “poor me” type thoughts to participate in a conversation right now. They quickly left the well-traveled highway and began a twisting series of turns into the heart of the city. Hannah turned, nearly pressing her nose to the glass in order to take in the sights, losing herself in the foreign place.
The buildings were a variety of colors, the tile roofs gleaming in the sun. Palm trees and other green things lined homes and decorated businesses. It was beautiful and different. She’d lived all her life in the Midwest, surrounded by fields or snow. If they survived this, she wanted to take Melissa up on her offer to fly somewhere for a weekend, just to see someplace new. She’d lived her life in a box, always within the confines of her parents’ expectations. That wasn’t the life she wanted anymore. The future might not include Mason, but she could still be happy, though it killed a little piece of herself to imagine never being with him again.
Maybe it was better that way. Last night could be her secret. Something just for her. If Mason knew what they’d done...he’d probably do something drastic. Like leave. Or stand up to her father. As much as she wanted Mason, she also wanted him alive.
The car pulled up next to a long single story building painted an avocado green.
Mason twisted, finally acknowledging her presence.
“This is us,” he said.
She nodded and slid out of the car. The driver was out and had her bag in hand before she’d even shaken the wedgie out.
Mason continued to speak to the driver, the big, foreign grin on his face starting to creep her out. Mason was more of the growling bear type of guy. Money exchanged hands, Mason took her bag, and then their ride was gone, leaving them on some random street in a city she couldn’t even pronounce.
“Come on.” Mason nudged her under the long portico that ran the length of the building.
“What is this place? What is going on?”
“A hotel. You’re going to go to the front desk and ask to speak to Abraham. I’ll be just outside the front doors, okay?”
“What? Why me?”
“There’s no time to explain.”
“Make time.” She stopped in her tracks and put her hands on her hips, just like she did when a patient got surly or obstinate. It’d even worked on Mason a handful of times.
“Hannah.” He grabbed her arm and stepped in close. “Abraham and Zain had a falling out. He’s our contact. I don’t want him to connect me to Aegis before he agrees to do the job for us.”
“What job is that?”
“IDs. Money. Weapons. Phones. The works. You ask to see Abraham, get a room number, and I’ll follow you in. I’ll be there, right behind you.”
“What makes you think he won’t hurt me?” Though she’d been around Aegis since her father was hired, she didn’t actually know how things worked.
Mason sighed, clearly exasperated with her questions. Well, fuck him if he didn’t want to answer. She wasn’t going into a situation without some idea of what to expect.
“Zain said Abraham has a code. It makes him hard to work with.”
“What code? Who is he?” This would go so much faster if Mason would just give her the information up front.
“Abraham deals mostly in guns. I don’t know all the details of his code, but he’s Jewish. I’m guessing no deliveries on the Sabbath, he doesn’t work with some nationalities, and he keeps kosher, but it’s just a guess. Satisfied?”
“Why did he and Zain fall out?”
“Zain violated one of his nationality rules. It was a mistake, not a conscious one, but Abraham never forgave him for it. Satisfied?”
“Yes. Let’s go.” She didn’t want to ask the next question—why Aegis would need to work with an arms dealer. Some questions didn’t need answers.
Hannah straightened her spine, pushed her should
ers back and tipped her chin up. Women in spy movies were always confident. She’d rather curl up in a corner and cry, but then what good would she be to Christine and Natalie? She’d demanded to stay, to help, so she couldn’t fall to pieces.
The doors to the lobby of the hotel stood open. Several fans moved the humid air around, not doing a lot to cool the place. A man sat at the front desk, flipping through a magazine while a telenovella played on the old TV at the center of a seating area.
The clerk glanced up, but his expression never altered.
“Hi.” Hannah stopped at the desk, one hand on the edge for the sake of balance. “Abraham?”
The man continued to stare at her. No acknowledgement that she’d spoken. No questions. Just a blank, empty gaze aimed her way.
Did she need to say something else? Was there a code word? A handshake or a knock?
“Who’s asking?” The voice was cool rain on a hot day, so close she felt the chilly fingertips of his presence down her spine.
Hannah turned, searching for the man behind the voice.
He stood just inside a hallway leading to what appeared to be rooms, a newspaper shielding his face. He was better dressed than anyone they’d seen thus far. His creamy colored linen suit was creased, but it looked a hell of a lot cooler than the cotton clothing she’d thrown on earlier.
“Are you Abraham?” she asked.
“Who are you?” He folded the newspaper in his hands and tucked it under his arm.
“Depends on who I’m speaking to.”
The corners of his mouth turned up and he smiled, flashing her two rows of perfectly white teeth.
“Abraham.” He held out his hand.
“Hannah.” She shook his hand, hoping the tremble didn’t give her away.
“And your friend?” Abraham nodded at the doors.
“That’s Mason.”
“Hm.” His brows lifted, but he didn’t once glance away from her.
Mason prowled into the lobby and came to stand just behind her, one hand at her hip. Even she recognized it for a possessive hold, one that annoyed her to no end. This Mason didn’t remember last night. He thought they were...whatever they’d been to each other before. He had no right to play caveman to her.
“Let me guess...Army Ranger? Navy SEAL? Black ops?” Abraham extended his arm toward Mason, who simply shook it without offering a reply. “You’re a private contractor now, aren’t you?”
Dangerous in Training (Aegis Group, #2) Page 9