“That’s it, come for me Amelia.”
I closed my eyes. Freezing up for a second at the name Amelia. I wanted to hear Henley. I wanted it more than anything. Lightning flashed then thunder followed by the patter of rain hitting the windows. He bit my shoulder and pounded into me with one last thrust that had me exploding around him. When we were done he disposed of the condom then carried me back to the bedroom where we had another round.
I sat up the sheets pooling in my lap. Pierce handed me a glass of champagne placing a tray of strawberries between us. He bit into the strawberry as he asked, “Tell me something I must know about you?” My mind raced with thoughts of his mouth biting me. I shivered.
I leaned forward and took a bite of the strawberry he was holding. I sat back. “I never knew strawberries could be so erotic.” I took a swig of champagne. He set his glass down on the nightstand. Taking my glass from my hand placing it beside his. He brushed a lock of hair behind my ear. His thumb tracing along my cheek. “I mean it, tell me something. I want to know everything about you.” There it was again that feeling that this was more, but I was on a mission and this, whatever it was, wouldn’t be anything after Sunday.
“This is the first time I’ve ever been on a yacht. And the first time I had three consecutive orgasms.” Both true.
“A woman of your wealth? Never on a yacht? I don’t believe it. And only three? I think I need to try harder.” With that he was wrapping his arms around me pushing me back onto the mattress. My last thought before he took me to oblivion again was that there was no way he was Bronsen Rodden. No way he was part of any drug cartel.
Pierce walked me to my door.
“This is me.” He didn’t move. “Thanks for a wonderful time.” He cupped my face with his hands and kissed me. We fell back against the door. I broke the kiss this time. “Dinner is in an hour.”
“I know.” He started kissing me again. I put my hands on his chest. The work of gods here. Be strong. With one last exploration of his mouth I pushed him away. “I’ll never get ready at this rate.”
“Let’s skip it. Order in. I’d like to show you how sensual a bacon cheeseburger can be.”
“This is your cousin.”
His hand turned into a fist. He slammed the wood above my head. “Fuck.”
Before either of us could change our mind. I slipped my key card in the lock, “See you later,” I said.
“I look forward to it.”
I blew him a kiss then quickly closed the door behind me. I stood there leaning against it. Through the peephole I could see him, arm still pressed against the door. He shook his head, then turned away and disappeared from my view. I slid down the door to the floor. Feeling my soreness. What exquisite pain. I was royally fucked. I made my way to the bathroom for a shower.
Chapter 9
I threw myself onto the bed, swinging my arms and kicking my legs furiously trying to dispel some of my giddiness. I’d never had a more perfect day. I smiled and rolled onto my stomach realizing for the first time the danger I was in. Or at least my heart. I enjoyed every minute I’d spent on Pierce’s yacht and that was the problem. It was all a lie. Every time he called me Amelia it hurt.
My phone started ringing.
It was Lilah. “Hey, what’s up?” I answered.
“Oh, thank god.” She sounded breathless.
“Everything okay?”
“Look, Duke doesn’t know I did this so it stays between us, but I ran some facial recognition software on the photos you sent. And …”
My heart started to race. What was she afraid to say. “And what?”
“I’m not sure. The woman you sent a picture of …”
“Yes …”
“When I put her picture into the program, well, it went all wonky before it crashed. That’s when I noticed the worm.”
“Worm?”
“Yes. Somehow, some way that picture had a worm embedded in it.”
“I don’t understand, that’s impossible. I took the picture. I sent it to you.”
“I know. It’s weird. I’m going to try and figure it out, but until I do don’t trust anyone, okay?”
“I promise.”
“As soon as I know more, I’ll call you.”
“Okay.”
“And Henley?”
“Yeah?”
“Good luck.”
“I have to go.”
“Be careful.” She hung up. How could …?
I picked up my iPad. Had someone tampered with it? Who? When? Why? Though Lilah’s phone call had unsettled me I couldn’t think about that now. I needed my A-game. This afternoon on board Pierce’s yacht I’d seen his personal computer. Not only had I seen it, but I’d been left alone with it more than once. Needless to say, my mission took a backseat today.
I struggled to assimilate the Pierce I knew with the man my agency claimed he was. He seemed to kind, to attentive, to trusting to be anything else. I pushed it all from my mind as I got ready for dinner.
I met Paige downstairs in the lobby. “Hey,” she said when she saw me. She gave me a hug. When we pulled apart she said, “Something looks different about you.”
I shrugged, “Maybe I made a mistake of my own today.” I winked. No need to mention who the mistake was.
She smiled. “Good girl. You ready?”
“I’m starving. Where is dinner at?”
“On the beach.”
We made small talk as we made our way through the hotel and out towards the beach. Two large tents were set up their openings facing the water. There was a DJ and dance floor. Two long tables were set up. Dinner was set for a smaller gathering than brunch only family was invited. Which meant I had to stick close to Paige. We found our seats. Pierce was already there. He winked when he saw me. My mind flashed back to today and I squeezed my legs together remembering him touching me there. I took a long drink of my wine.
Waiters came by serving the first course of our meal. That’s when blondie showed up. The woman I’d seen out in front of the hotel arguing with Pierce. The one who crashed Lilah’s programming. She took the empty seat beside Pierce. I took a few bites of my salad before casually leaning into Paige and asking, “Who’s the knockout?”
Paige followed my line of sight. “Oh, that’s Pierce’s fiancé, Cheyenne.” Instantly, my stomach soured. I felt sick. “If you’ll excuse me I need to use the restroom.” On the beach a small trailer was set up as the restrooms. I found the ladies and went inside. I splashed cold water on my face until my heart calmed. I took a deep breath and looked at myself in the mirror. His fiancé? I pulled myself together before drying my face. Maybe this mission wouldn’t be so hard.
Outside the bathroom Pierce was standing there. He pulled me to him kissing me. I pushed him away. “Stay with me tonight? I have to be near you. I haven’t stopped thinking about you.” With his arms wrapped around me and his scent invading my senses I wanted to say yes, but I knew better.
I pulled away. “No.”
“No? Why not?” He looked truly dumbfounded.
“Ask your fiancé.”
“Fiancé?” God, even stupid looked good on him.
I shook my head. “Leave me alone.” I stormed off. Forget dinner I headed back to my hotel room. I had a name and hopefully that would be enough for Lilah to figure out how Cheyenne played into this game.
Chapter 10
3:30.
The wedding was in two hours. I wasn’t cut out to be a field agent. Pierce was a fling. Day after tomorrow I flew back home where he would be nothing but a memory.
“That’s his fiancé.”
I had to finish this job. Nothing could come of Pierce and I. I knew that with one-hundred percent certainty. But there would be consequences for not finishing my job. My phone rang. It was Lilah.
Finally.
“Tell me something good,” I said by way of greeting.
“I still haven’t figured
out how the worm got on my computer but with the name you gave me I was able to find a Cheyenne in our database.”
“And?”
“Your Cheyenne is part of the Santiago Cartel, she’s the head.”
“Shit.” I now had a link between the cartel and Pierce. Apparently, my gut was not to be trusted. Even if Pierce didn’t fit the image of a power-hungry drug lord, he was obviously connected if he was engaged to the head of one. If nothing else I needed to finish this job to prove to myself I wasn’t in love with a bad guy. Shit. Did I just say in love? One day of mind blowing sex did not a future make.
Yes, I’d finish my mission if for no other reason than to clear Pierce from my heart. “Did you hear me?” Lilah repeated.
“Yeah, sorry. Pierce is engaged to a cartel boss which gives more weight to him being Bronsen Rodden.”
“About that, there’s something else you should know.”
“I’m all ears.”
“I looked into Agent Monroe.”
“How? We don’t have access to CIA agents.”
“Let’s just say I have my ways. Anyway, what I found doesn’t make sense.”
“What?”
“According to CIA record Agent Monroe died during an operation last year.”
“If that’s true then who is the Agent Monroe I’ve been working with?”
“That’s the million-dollar question Henley. I don’t have answers so be really careful.”
“Trust me. I’m getting in and getting out as fast as I can. I have to go. I’ll call as soon as I can.”
“Good luck, Henley.”
We disconnected. The wedding was in an hour, my window was running out. Tonight, during the ceremony I would complete my mission. Then I was booking the next ticket out of here. I grabbed my purse and dumped the contents, I found the lipstick jump drive. I placed it on the dresser then finished getting ready.
I took a seat in the back row at the wedding. From here I could see Pierce. He was in the front row seated next to Cheyenne. They were deep in conversation. Heads together lips moving a mile a minute. He must have felt me staring because he turned and our eyes met. Cheyenne turned to look at me too.
The music started and everyone’s attention turned to the aisle. Bethesda looked beautiful. I felt tears running down my cheek. I wiped them away. As the ceremony started I slipped away. I knew Pierce’s office was right around the corner. I prayed his computer was in there. I used the bathroom across the hall to see just how many cameras would be watching me. There was just one. It did a 180-degree rotation. I had about thirty seconds to unlock his office door before the camera would make its rotation back.
Once I was ready I waited until the camera moved and went for it. I had the door unlocked in record time. As the camera came back around to see me I casually leaned against the wall pretending to check my make-up in my compact. Once it moved on I opened the door and slipped in.
I hurried over to his desk. His laptop was right there. I flipped it open and turned it on. It took forever to power up. It was a Dell laptop at least two years old. Ancient in computer years. Someone with so much money should be able to update his computer regularly. When it finally turned on I was shocked by his desktop wallpaper. It was a picture of me. It was from our time on his yacht. It meant nothing, he was engaged to a cartel boss. I pulled the lipstick from my purse as I opened the command window on his computer. I typed in the code exactly as Lilah told me. I was putting the jump drive on his computer when I heard, “What do you think you’re doing?”
I looked up. Cheyenne had a gun aimed at me. “I got turned around looking for the restroom?”
She cocked the gun, “Try again.”
I stood up coming around the desk to stand in front of Cheyenne, “Look, I mean you no harm, I’m just going to go and—” Just then the lights went out sending the room into total darkness.
As I groped in the dark I felt something stick me in the arm then everything went black.
Chapter 11
My head throbbed and everything was fuzzy. The last thing I remembered was sneaking into Pierce’s office to upload the Trojan when Cheyenne entered and then … Pierce was there. He stuck me in the shoulder then everything went black and I woke up here. We were in a basement of some sort. There was a door, a window and not much else. To my right was Cheyenne. She wasn’t moving. I nudged her with my foot.
“Ow,” she said.
“I have a gun and I’m not afraid to use it.” Total bluff. Unless you considered my fingers a deadly weapon.
She opened her eyes and looked at me before shaking her head. “I wasn’t really going to shoot you, you know.”
“And I should trust a mob boss?”
She laughed then winced grabbing her head. “Mob boss?” She sat up. “I’m MI-6.”
“And I’m the queen of England.”
“No. You’re FBI.”
“How do you know that?”
“Agent Cooper we’ve both been duped.”
“How do you know my name?”
“We can talk about that later, right now we have to get out of here, who knows when someone will be back.”
“You’re right but how?”
Cheyenne went to the door giving the knob a twist. No surprise it was locked. The only other option was the window, but it was high and small. There was only one piece of furniture in the room, a cabinet that was empty.
Cheyenne and I paced the room. How the hell did Cheyenne know who I was? I was in over my head. I mean I was an analyst for a reason. If I managed to get out of this alive I was done doing field work. Behind a desk I would stay.
She paused in front of the cabinet. “Maybe if we tip the cabinet over and push it under the window we could get out?”
I nodded it was our best option. Shoot, our only option. It took a few minutes but we had the cabinet under the window. I climbed up first. Even on my tiptoes the window was still a foot above me. Cheyenne climbed up beside me. “Maybe if I give you a boost?”
She bent over putting her hands out for me to step in when the door opened. We both turned to see agent Monroe standing in the doorway. “Leaving so soon?”
“You!” Cheyenne and I said in unison.
Agent Monroe smiled. “It was almost too easy.”
“Bronsen we meet again,” Cheyenne said.
I looked at her, “That’s agent Monroe with the CIA.”
“No. That’s Bronsen head of the Cadria Cartel.”
I shook my head. “No, Pierce Huntley is the head of the Cadria Cartel.”
Cheyenne shook her head and closed her eyes. “Trust me, I’ve been after Bronsen for years.”
My instincts had been right about Pierce. As Bronsen continued explaining his elaborate plan I realized I was wearing the flower pin. It could take pictures as well as video, but only two minutes’ worth. Without raising suspicion, I pressed the petal so it would record him.
Agent Monroe laughed. “You played your part perfectly. Thanks to you Agent Cooper it will look like Pierce Huntley is indeed Bronsen Rodden. I almost didn’t get the Trojan you made on his computer because of Agent Charley’s interruption, luckily I’m a quick thinker.”
As Monroe continued to talk he stepped away from the door and further into the room. With his attention on me he didn’t notice Cheyenne moving towards the door. She waved her hand at me holding three fingers at her side. I got her plan. Or at least I hoped I did.
Two fingers.
“Eventually, someone will figure this all out,” I said keeping his attention on me.
“Yes. But by then I’ll have a new identity so it won’t matter.”
One finger.
At the same time both Cheyenne and I charged Bronsen. Cheyenne punched him in the head while I kicked him in the stomach. He bent over trying to catch his breath when I landed another kick to his head knocking him down to the ground.
Cheyenne stood over him. “If there’s anything the movies have taught us it’s t
hat the bad guys always talk too much.”
“Can I ask you one thing?”
As if reading my mind Cheyenne said, “No, we’re not engaged it was a cover in order for me to stay close to him without seeming suspicious. And yes, we both knew you were FBI, because it seems we have a mole.”
“Oh,” was all I could say.
Chapter 12
I shouldn’t have come here. I knew that now. Taking this mission was a mistake from beginning to end. Bronsen Rodden aka agent Monroe was in custody but he wasn’t talking. Somehow a drug lord was able to pose as an agent and set things up to work out in his favor. The video I shot with my flower pin was the only evidence we had to prove this, but I didn’t let anyone know I had it. I wasn’t sure who I could trust anymore. Once home I planned to make several copies of that video. One way or another we had to find out who the mole was. At least my instincts were right, Pierce was a good guy. What more did I need to know? All those moments Pierce and I shared were all a lie. Only now we both knew the truth.
What in the hell was I doing in his office right now? What did I think seeing Pierce before I left Monaco would do besides hurt? He came up behind me, pressing his chest firmly against my back. His arms were on either side of me, his hands gripping the edge of his desk forcing me to stay put and listen. I could feel his warm breath against my left ear. He was close, to close when his lips moved to speak I could feel them, which gave me a moment pause. “None of what happened changes how I feel,” he whispered.
How he felt? None of this was real. As quick as he entered my space he withdrew. One second, one heart beat to gather my thoughts and I turned to face him. He was standing by the couch in his office leaning against the back of it.
So calm.
So relaxed. The mission was done. We had Bronsen Rodden in custody. Pierce knew I wasn’t Amelia but really FBI agent Henley Cooper. Now was where we parted ways. I went back to my job at the FBI cracking code while he lived his luxurious life. Without me. I’m sure in a week there would be another girl to replace me. He’d forget all about me, while I on the other hand would never be able to forget him.
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