Always Ready

by Joanne Rock

  “I know you’re at Borinquen now, and a few old friends of mine have been spending a lot of time partying down there the last few months.”

  “Is that right?” He tore his gaze from the bathroom door to key in to what Kelly was saying. No matter how he felt about her, if her connections as a user could help him bust Castine, he wouldn’t hesitate to leverage them.

  “Yes.” She paused on the other end, then lowered her voice. “These girls have serious habits, and now that I’ve quit, I want to help them.”

  He wasn’t going to ask about her addiction now, when he had to take Lace to the doctor. Better to focus on whatever information Kelly thought she had. Back when he’d known her, she’d been sharp. She’d taken pride in her logical approach to life. If she was clean again, she might have some great insights to offer on Castine’s business. But if not…he had to suspect her motives.

  “And how do you think you’re going to do that?”

  “By telling you what I’ve heard about their supplier. He’s a big gun, Damon, and I know that’s who your group goes after whether you admit it or not.”

  “C’mon, Kel. Not on the phone, okay?” He knew a moment’s regret about not having a more secure connection, but damn it, she’d known him long enough to understand she shouldn’t talk about his work on the phone.

  “Right. Anyway, this guy is hosting a party barge that leaves out of Rincon.”

  Damon tensed, recognizing the name of the nearby beach community famous for its big waves and surfing. This was the same event Castine had told Lacey about.

  “Are you sure?”

  Rincon was damn close to the Coast Guard Air Station at Borinquen. Castine would have to be pretty damn cocky to think he could pull off something so blatant right under the Coast Guard’s nose.

  “Supersure. They invited me down for the launch party, but I’m staying out of that circuit.” She hesitated. “I messed up by getting involved with it in the first place.”

  The soft, confidential tone sounded like a woman who wanted to segue into true-confessions time. Or maybe revisit old-relationship ground. And that damn well wasn’t happening.

  “Kelly, I need names. People names. Ship names. Do you have anything more concrete for me?”

  “No. But I hear the ringleader is going to be on board this barge. My friends can’t wait to meet him because he’s supposed to be supergenerous to the women he, um, likes best.”

  “Nice friends you’ve got there, Kel.” He shook his head as the water stopped running in the next room and he wondered how he’d ended up with a woman whose values were so far removed from his own. “Thanks for the tip.”

  “Damon?” Kelly sounded worried all of a sudden. “I’m really sorry.”

  She didn’t clarify what she was sorry for. The drugs? Trolling for a new guy behind his back? But then, he didn’t need to know. He was sorry for a few things himself. He might not have cheated on her with another woman, but he’d placed her second for their whole relationship.

  “Me, too.” As he stared at the bathroom door again, imagining Lacey wrapping her warm, wet body in a towel, he recalled exactly why he shouldn’t try and see her after this week was over.

  Thumbing the off button to disconnect, he swallowed the old regrets easier than the newest one. He wouldn’t be able to discuss Kelly’s phone call with Lacey any more than he could discuss any of the specifics of the upcoming operation to corner Castine with his newest shipment.

  Ignoring the pang of conscience that told him there ought to be a better way, he phoned Enrique to relay the newest information. Once again he put his work first. Nothing had changed except that this new woman in his life was a hell of a lot tougher to relegate to the back burner than his ex had been.

  Damon didn’t know what aspect of that realization sucked worst. The discovery that maybe he hadn’t cared about Kelly as much as he’d once thought? Or the news that Lacey Sutherland already meant more to him than any woman he’d ever known?

  “IS IT JUST ME, or does it seem like two people who’ve boinked as much as we have ought to know each other better than we do?”

  Lacey’s words were so unexpected later that morning that Damon had to laugh.

  His thoughts had been a million miles away for most of their drive out to Borinquen. He’d convinced her to let another military doc look her over, since Tejal had been called out on duty somewhere for the day. The urgent-care facility in San Juan was crowded and the wait time would have been long anyhow. Plus, he needed a way to get to work without his car since they’d left it at In the Flesh.

  Now, cruising west on Route 2 toward the base, they drove past 1001 small shops selling car parts that seemed to thrive in this section of the island. Wind whipped over them with the top down, the warmth of another perfect day at odds with the formerly somber mood in the car.

  “Boinked?” He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel as he swerved around a pothole.

  “You have to admit, things got hot and heavy so quick that we haven’t really talked about regular stuff,” she explained, glancing at him across the console, her blond hair all the kinkier after her quick shower before they left her hotel room.

  In her red T-shirt with no makeup and her natural curls flying, she looked like a surfer chick right down to the freckles dotting her nose. He hadn’t noticed those before and guessed they were something the days in the sun had brought out.

  “Maybe you have a point.” He was just glad she hadn’t brought up the phone call that he couldn’t discuss. At least not until Castine was in custody. “Are you planning to use those matchmaking skills to figure out why we’re so hot together?”

  He wove the rental around an iguana sunning himself on the road. As they neared a local beach, the smoky scents of barbecued meats wafted through the vehicle.

  “Don’t you want to know how our profiles sync up?” He heard the challenge in her voice. There was something endlessly prickly about this woman. Starchy, almost.

  Oh, it hadn’t been there last night. Sex in general seemed to make it disappear. But she had a natural defensiveness about her whether they were talking about her job or her personal life. Curiosity about her—about what made her that way—prompted him to realize she might be onto a good idea after all.

  There could be some value in learning more about the people you got close to. If he’d thought to get to know Kelly on a deeper level, maybe he would have understood how vulnerable she’d been, left on her own in the middle of Nowheresville, Alaska.

  But while it might be interesting to see what made Lacey tick, what the hell might she read into him if he filled out that damn profile she put so much stock in?

  “I guess,” he hedged, feeling off his game today. And thank God the medical center wasn’t too much farther. “But I’ve got my hands full this afternoon.”

  He needed to follow up on the lead Kelly had given him about the party barge out of Rincon and pin down the origins of the drug Lacey had been given last night.

  “Oh. We don’t have to analyze the profiles today anyhow. I’m not feeling my best, to be honest.” She tilted her head sideways onto the fist she’d propped up with an elbow on the door.

  Her admission sucker punched him, reminding him he needed to treat her with a little more sensitivity while her body still processed the aftereffects of the drug. No doubt the chemical wouldn’t be out of her system for another ten or twelve hours.

  “We’re almost to the medical center.” He sped up to pass an old junker painted with political messages and advertisements. “The docs there will take better care of you than I have.”

  She was quiet for so long he turned to look at her and saw her smiling.

  “Don’t sell yourself short. You took damn good care of me last night.”

  And just like that, they were connected again somehow, held together by fragile, invisible links that wouldn’t disappear just because he thought it was for the best. He was attracted to Lacey Sutherland, and no matter how much he
buried his head in the demands of his job, that wasn’t going to change anytime soon.

  He just hoped he could distance himself from that attraction enough to let her leave at the end of the week without any regrets.

  “So,” Lacey began, tugging a strand of curls off her cheek as they stopped at the last traffic light before the base. “Even if we don’t analyze them, we could at least start the process by filling out the matchmaking profiles when we have extra time. I have one in my purse if you’re going to be bored in the waiting room.”

  Aw, crap.

  He was cornered, but he couldn’t renege now. Not when he owed her some compassion for what she’d been through. For that matter, he owed her job more respect than he’d given it in the past. But it looked as if that distance he’d wanted wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.

  HE NEEDED TO GIVE UP on Lacey.

  Nick’s rational mind recognized this. Understood it. Agreed with it.

  Too bad he’d passed the point of no return with her.

  He used one of his aliases to check into the El San Juan Hotel and Casino, the same hotel where she was staying. He’d had her followed last night after she and her boyfriend had eluded him. Nick had already snuffed the guy in charge of that operation. What idiot left a calling card like two big-ass Hummers? That was fine if you wanted to make a statement. Intimidate someone. But that’s not the way a serious operator went about getting real business accomplished. If the douche bag had waited for Lacey and her boyfriend in a beat-up old Toyota the night before, Nick would have already sampled her flesh. Introduced her to exotic pleasures G.I. Joe had probably never even heard of, let alone tried.

  Now, too many people in his organization knew that he wanted her. That he’d failed more than once to complete the mission. And that just wouldn’t do.

  Drug runners were a breed apart. A group made up of big balls and even bigger egos. If Nick’s men thought he didn’t have the cojones to pull off his chosen missions, they’d align themselves with some brash young upstart who did.

  Still, their concerns would all be put to rest when they learned his bigger plan for her. Then they’d see she hadn’t been just a plaything for the boss. Getting close to her would be seen as a strategic move for the operation.

  “Here you are, Mr. Cassidy.” The hotel attendant smiled as she handed him the key card to his room. “Just take the elevators to the fourth floor and we hope you’ll enjoy your stay.”

  “Is it possible to obtain a map of the hotel?” he asked, not sure if he would need it, but wishing to be prepared for all possible scenarios.

  The Coast Guard man was a nuisance he was well rid of. Damon Craig had proven troublesome to the larger operation as well as to Nick’s personal venture with Lacey. Thankfully, he’d secured the outside help of the man’s druggie ex-girlfriend to ensure Craig would be chasing his tail for a while.

  “Of course.” The woman leaned forward on the counter to present the map to him, her ample breasts stretching the fabric of her blouse in a way that would draw any man’s eye.

  She had no idea what she was getting herself into with him. But how could he resist a small snack to tide himself over until he could secure the elusive meal he’d been hungering for all week?

  “Thank you.” He tucked the map into his jacket pocket and smoothed his tie. “And would it be too forward of me to ask you for a tour at some point? In exchange for dinner, perhaps?”

  The young woman’s cheeks flushed pink as she bit her lip.

  “We do try to keep the guests happy,” she admitted, tucking a dark curl behind her ear as she jotted down her digits with the other hand and passed him the card. “Just let me know when you’d like me to play tour guide.”

  His body responded predictably to the invitation, although not as much as it might have if the failure with Lacey didn’t still weigh on his ego. No doubt the curvy desk clerk would pay for that loss until Lacey was brought to heel.

  All in good time.

  “I’ll look forward to it,” he assured her, slipping the card in his pocket right next to the home address of his other future bed partner.

  Because Nick would have Lacey sooner or later, even if he had to follow her all the way back home for a block of uninterrupted time with her. When Lacey was finally in his bed, he would indulge his every last desire.

  Chapter 10

  “‘YOU’VE JUST PURCHASED the newest, most technologically advanced camera on the market. Do you read the directions or simply begin using it?’

  “What the hell kinds of questions are these?” Damon muttered to himself as he read the twentieth query in Lacey’s compatibility questionnaire. He sat in the waiting room outside the infirmary, feeling restless that he wasn’t in the office yet and guilty that he hadn’t brought Lacey directly here the night before.

  What if she’d been slipped a stronger drug than Tejal suspected?

  Damon’s pencil hovered over his answer—who read directions when they got a new gadget to mess around with?—when his cell phone rang. Stepping out into the hall with Lacey’s test under one arm, he thumbed the on button and saw from the ID it was Enrique on the other end.

  He’d already set the wheels in motion to follow up on the lead from Kelly.

  “Craig here.”

  Medical personnel brushed by him while the facility’s PA system paged a doctor. He stepped into an old phone booth and used the empty seat behind the small screen for privacy.

  “Where are you, bro? We’ve got reports of major activity coming up from the south.”

  He tensed, knowing he needed to quit overthinking the dating profile and get his ass in to work.

  “Have we run flights to confirm it?” They’d been waiting for a day of unusual watercraft activity as a potential sign of Castine on the move. In the past he’d flooded this section of the Atlantic with a variety of small, private vessels as a decoy from his boats’ movements.

  “We’re checking out some bigger vessels farther out to sea along with any barge headed toward Rincon. Our intel is suggesting the latest shipment is too big to hide in a handful of smaller boats.” Enrique’s voice picked up volume as the background noise increased and Damon recognized the sounds of the flight line nearby.

  He’d thought he had a personal reason to intercept drugs on the move before, when he’d been full of resentment about Kelly’s descent into addiction. But now the illicit crap floated freely around every major U.S. city to the point where it had ended up in Lacey’s drink without her knowing.

  He would find out who wanted to hurt her. And if it was Castine, the way his gut had been telling him, he would crush the bastard and his whole operation.

  “I’ll be there as soon as I can.” He didn’t have any flight time scheduled for the day, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be on base, ready to go if their intel guys turned up something. Pocketing his phone, he decided to check in with Lacey and go. He’d fix this problem at the root, and that meant putting duty before playing Joe Chivalry here.

  He didn’t need to read the manual to know it was time to make tracks.

  “HE ABANDONED YOU in some foreign hospital alone while you suffered from a drug trip?” As Lacey sat by the hotel pool later that morning, her sister screeched in her ear through her cell phone from a few thousand miles away.

  Lacey had wanted her sister to know about her doctor’s visit even though she’d been avoiding Laura ever since their competition had heated up. No matter how much they picked at each other professionally, they remained close on a personal level.

  A gifted child, Laura had finished college before most of her friends had declared a major. But speeding ahead of the world with her brilliant mind had never made her socially aware. She could rub people the wrong way with her manner, but she basically meant well. Lacey had been annoyed when her mathematician sis decided to follow her into the matchmaking business, but she was now beginning to believe that Laura simply couldn’t bear to watch other people doing things that she could acc
omplish in a smarter, faster, better way.

  “The drug trip was over by then,” Lacey assured her, exhausted from a night of so little rest. “And it’s not a foreign hospital, since Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory. I was in very good hands.”

  And how. She’d be thinking about Damon Craig’s hands for a long time. Too bad that memory had been tainted just a little by the mystery phone call from an unknown woman afterward. Although she hadn’t read Damon’s profile yet, she didn’t believe he would date another woman at the same time as her, so she wasn’t worried about that.

  But what if he harbored feelings for someone else that he hadn’t acted on?

  “So you called to make sure I knew that the family good girl had her first drug trip, but basically you’re fine?” Laura sounded less worried and more perturbed now.

  How was it her sister could cut down her motives to nothing in two seconds flat?

  “No.” Damn it. She did have a valid reason for calling. “I thought it would be wise for a family member to be aware of a health issue in case I have any delayed effects from the experience. You’re listed as my emergency contact for medical purposes, you know.”

  “Ah. Ever the organized and practical.” Laura must have been sitting on her porch because Lacey could hear the multitude of wind chimes in the background. Her home was a temple to all things hippie. “So how’s the blog going?”

  Lacey was grateful for the lack of people around the hotel’s exotic pool near the beach. She’d commandeered a private cabana in a back corner that didn’t have true walls or a ceiling but silky curtains surrounding it that allowed her to see anyone else approach. The content of her blog—her experiences at In the Flesh—was material that she couldn’t speak openly about in public without a bit of discomfort.

  Funny that talking about her matchmaking business could be as socially awkward as discussing a drug trip.

  “I’m going through a professional crisis, but other than that, just fine.”

  “Please don’t say you’re still hung up on the number of visitors.” Laura hushed her poodle, Brillo, when the dog started to yap like crazy. “I told you the ebbs and flows of those trends mean nothing in the big mathematical scheme of things. If you took ten minutes to check out a statistics textbook, you’d see they’re in keeping with the laws of probability.”