Tall, Dark and Deadly Books 0.5 - 3

by Lisa Renee Jones

  “You do have a profound way with words, Mr. Wright,” Mendez observed, disdain in his voice.

  “So I’ve been told,” Blake commented and the only disdain he had was for this man and his cronies. “More money and more information, or I’m out.”

  “What did you do with the women?” Mendez asked, shifting the conversation.

  “I sent them far away and told them that everyone they ever knew or might know in the future would be slaughtered if they ever said a word about what happened to them.”

  “And why not kill them?” he queried.

  “I don’t do bloodbaths. Dead bodies come with complications I don’t need.”

  Mendez pursed his lips. “I want them dead.”

  “Find them and kill them. And good luck. I’m damn good at hiding what I don’t want to be found. Almost as good as I am at finding what others don’t want discovered.”

  His eyes bored into Blake’s for several seconds before his attention turned sharply to Kara. “You aren’t offended by the females being sold off by our organization?”

  “It’s not my job to judge,” Kara replied coolly. “It’s my job to protect the organization.”

  “And why would you be that loyal?” he questioned.

  Impressively, Kara didn’t so much as blink. “Because I’m tired of being poor and struggling. I want more.”

  Mendez leaned back in his chair, his expression unreadable. Seconds ticked by, which Blake used to envision slamming the man’s head against the desk. He couldn’t help it. He believed dreams could come true if you visualized them often enough.

  Finally Mendez spoke. “You’ve caught the attention of my boss, Mr. Wright. He’d like you to meet with him this evening, and since Kara has proven so effective by your side, she’s to attend as well. You’re to be at the docks at nine o’clock. A boat will be there to pick you up. The location, as you can imagine, will be undisclosed. Please dress appropriately. My boss is a very powerful man. He deserves to be treated as such.”

  By the time Mendez shut his big yap, Blake had enough adrenaline pumping through him to fuel a jet liner. He was a hair from Alvarez, so close he could taste him, but he had to play this cool. “My time is money,” Blake said. “Why would I attend this meeting? What’s in it for me?”

  “More money and more opportunity than you ever dreamed possible, Mr. Wright.” His phone buzzed and Evelyn said, “Your lunch appointment is here.”

  “Send her in,” Mendez replied, pushing to his feet, and addressing Blake and Kara again. “Nine o’clock. Be there.” The door opened. “And now, if you’ll please be on your way. I have another meeting.”

  Blake pushed off the desk. “Maybe your boss will shoot straight with me.”

  Mendez’s lips twitched. “He definitely shoots straight, Mr. Wright.”

  Unease slid through Blake at the subtle threat beneath the words he couldn’t let go. “I guess that’s why he’s had a long and prosperous life.” Blake turned away from Mendez, ending the conversation, following Kara toward the door. A twenty-something blonde in a red dress, with deep cleavage, entered before they could depart, sashaying toward them, a “come and get me” look in her eyes. Apparently Mendez’s lunch didn’t involve food.

  Blake and Kara exited the office and headed toward the lobby. When they entered the elevator neither of them spoke. Blake stood there, thinking of how close he was to killing Alvarez and he expected the hunger for vengeance to expand and grow inside him, but it didn’t. This meeting with Alvarez that should be a long desired victory was a bittersweet triumph for one reason and one reason only. Kara. Everything he’d been living for the past two years, everything he’d thought he wanted, had transformed. Those things had become her. He wouldn’t lose her to Alvarez. He couldn’t let her go to this meeting.

  Once they were inside the truck, Blake knew he had one shot to get her to agree to stay behind. Staring straight ahead, unable to look at Kara and control the emotions the past created, he said, “Her name was Whitney. We were on a task force together targeting Alvarez. Word came that Alvarez wanted a trilingual translator and there were only a handful of agents that met the criteria, and only one of those was available.”

  “Whitney,” she whispered.

  “Yes.” He forced himself to look at her. “She was a new agent and scared, but brave. So damn brave. She’d seen the horror that was Alvarez and she wanted him to go down.” He leaned against the door. “Once she was inside the cartel, Alvarez was taken with her, too much so, and…I try not to think about what she might have done to stay alive.” He glanced up at the ceiling, thinking about how many times he’d lain awake wondering if Whitney was in Alvarez’s bed. “She traveled everywhere with him.” He drew a deep breath and leveled his gaze back on Kara to find tears streaming down her face. She knew what was coming. Of course she knew. “About six months into her cover, Whitney was sure she had something big that would take Alvarez down. I was meeting her to pick up the data, but we got word her cover was blown before I got here. I tried to call her and get her to run but she didn’t answer. I arrived at the hotel where we were meeting at and…and her throat was sliced and she was bleeding out. She…” He squeezed his eyes shut. “She died in my arms.”

  “Oh God. I…” She moved across the seat and cradled his face in her hands. “I don’t know what to say. I know sorry doesn’t make it better. I know that so damn well.”

  “Say you won’t go to this meeting. Say you’ll stay behind and you’ll let me handle this.”

  “No,” she whispered. “No.” She shook her head. “I can’t do that, Blake. Remember. I have your back and you have mine.”

  Emotion burned in his chest. “I didn’t have her back, Kara. I let her die. I let her live the hell of having her throat sliced open, and drowning in her own blood. I let that happen.”

  “You didn’t let her die. She did her job. And you’re right. She was brave. And damn it, we’ll take down Alvarez. We will. We’ll let her rest in peace. But we have to do it together. We need each other.”

  She was right. He needed her. That’s why this time, he really was going to make her hate him because he was going to do whatever it took to keep her off that boat.

  Chapter Seven

  With only an hour until they headed to the docks, Kara paced the new hotel room she and Blake had rented close to her apartment, waiting for his return. After seeing the girls off to the Oakland airport and New York, where Walker headquarters was, they’d both agreed they didn’t dare risk going back to her place, or his hotel—even for clothes. By the time they’d returned to San Francisco and shopped, it had been six o’clock, three hours until they were to meet at the docks. Blake had gone to meet Kyle and his brothers to show them certain surveillance points. She’d called him twice and he assured her he was headed back soon, but she was getting nervous. He’d been withdrawn ever since she’d insisted she had to go with him tonight. Had he left without her? Surely he knew she’d show up at nine at the docks on her own.

  The door to the room jiggled and Kara rushed forward as Blake walked in, and she let out a breath of relief. He was still in jeans and a leather jacket. He hadn’t left without her. Kyle followed him in and her relief faded inside the crackling tension in the air.

  “What’s wrong?” Kara asked.

  Blake settled his hands on her arms. “Kyle’s going to stay with you while I go to the meeting.”

  “What? No. I’m going.”

  “No, Kara—you aren’t.” His hands came down on her shoulders, his brown eyes hard, determined.

  She wet her lips, knowing two big men weren’t a battle she could fight. At least, not head on. A good agent—and she was a good agent—used smarts. “If you do this—”

  “You’ll hate me,” he said. “I’d rather you hate me alive than bury you like I did Whitney.”

  Like Whitney. A part of her softened. He cared about her. He was worried about her. But she cared about him too, and neither of them could survive his gui
lt and fear. He had to overcome it. She had to make him. She removed his hands from her shoulders. “Do what you have to do, Blake.”

  His eyes narrowed. “That was easy.”

  She glanced around him to Kyle, who had rubber cuffs in his hands. “I know when I’m beat. And I don’t need to be cuffed. I’ll stay.” Kara leaned in and kissed Blake. “And you stay alive, damn it.”

  He molded her closer and kissed her deeply, passionately, and she tasted the bitterness of his guilt and his fear. “I will,” he promised. “For you, I will.” He turned and left and Kara stared after him.

  “I guess that leaves you and me, darlin’,” Kyle teased.

  “I guess it does, bubba,” she said thinking how bad she was going to feel in a couple of minutes. She liked Kyle and he was a good friend to Blake.

  He grinned and sauntered into the room, sinking down into the desk chair and grabbing a room service menu. “I’m starving. You hungry?”

  “Yes. I am.” Kara sat down on the bed and kicked off one shoe and then carefully removed the second where she’d hidden the secret weapon she’d gotten from an FBI lab. The same weapon she’d used to put Blake to sleep in Denver. “Anything good on the menu, or should we order pizza?”

  He glanced down and she pulled off the sticker that exposed the sleeping drug, careful not to touch her own skin. “Looks good to me,” he said. “You want to take a look?”

  “Sure, I…” She started to get up and feigned a cramp. She needed to get him to the bed so he didn’t fall over and hit his head when she knocked him out. “Oh, ah. Stupid charlie horse.” She rubbed her foot several seconds, making a pained face. “Okay. Ouch. That hurt. I can’t walk. Can you bring me the menu?”

  “You must be dehydrated,” Kyle said, pushing to his feet. “I used to get those when I played football.” He handed her the menu.

  Kara looked up at him. “I’m sorry, Kyle. I really am.” She grabbed his arm and pressed the drug against his skin.

  His brows furrowed. “Sorry for what?” And then his eyes rolled back in his head.

  Kara jumped to her feet and somehow turned his big body so that it fell back on the mattress. She didn’t give herself time for guilt. She quickly put her shoes back on, grabbed her purse, and headed for the door.

  Part 4

  Chapter One

  “Where’s your innocent little secretary who isn’t a secretary at all—or she wouldn’t handle a gun so well?” Ignacio demanded.

  Standing on the dock, the cold night wind whipping around him, Blake wanted to do some whipping of his own. On Ignacio. But since the asshole was his ticket to Alvarez right now, he’d refrain until a later date. “That’s like saying a lawyer can’t bake a cake,” Blake observed. “But then your brain seems to operate like a mud pie.”

  Ignacio’s face reddened under the too-dim lighting along the wooden walkway to their right. “Where is she, asshole?”

  “Kara’s…tied up,” he replied. “She couldn’t make it.”

  “My uncle specifically said I was to transport you both. I’ll have to call him.”

  Blake yanked his phone from his belt. “I’ll do it for you.”

  “I’m here!”

  Blake froze at the sound of Kara’s voice, every muscle in his body turning to ice and then heating with anger. How the fuck was she here, and why hadn’t he tied her up? And while he wasn’t on mic with his brothers, he was sure they were nearby and cursing, too. They all knew how dangerous this meeting could get and Kara had no business being involved. He’d flipping warned Kyle she was skilled and she’d proven it, clearly outsmarting him.

  At the sound of Kara’s heels clattering over the wooden dock, Blake turned to stare at her, watching her hair and the red silk of her dress flutter around her. She looked sexy and feminine and a ripe target for a human-trafficking operation. What part of that didn’t she understand? Blake ground his teeth at the sight of two goons stepping behind her and stopping to guard the walkway, their weapons glinting in their shoulder holsters like shined silver despite the barely there light. There was no way he could get her out of this trip. She was here. It wouldn’t be easy, but he was damn sure going to try.

  “I made it after all.” She stopped between him and Ignacio and shivered, hugging herself. “I forgot my jacket. I’m freezing.”

  Blake almost laughed at her obvious attempt at playing the innocent little secretary after she’d clearly just outwitted one of the best damn men Walker Security had on their team. Innocent, and held a gun at one of the cartel member’s heads only hours before.

  “Where exactly were you?” Ignacio demanded.

  Blake grimaced and before Kara could reply, answered for her. “What the hell business is it of yours?”

  Ignacio cut him a hard look, his gaze flicking over Blake’s jeans and leather jacket, before raking an obscene path down Kara’s body and back up. “She’s late, but at least she’s dressed for a meeting with Alvarez.”

  Blake curled his fingers into his palms and told himself not to punch the living crap out of the man. He’d had a lot of urges to pummel people since meeting Kara, it seemed. Pulling her to his side and under his arm, he would keep her close. He didn’t give a damn how tough she thought she was—she didn’t belong here. If there was any way he could get her out of here, he would. He lifted his chin at Ignacio. “Just get us to Alvarez.”

  “Gladly.” Ignacio’s lips twisted. “I’m going to enjoy how much he won’t like you and how much he will like her.” He glanced at Kara. “Give me your purse.”

  Kara didn’t hesitate, handing it over to him. Of course, she was prepared. She’d been prepared for Kyle. She’d be prepared for Ignacio. “Ignore the lipstick,” Blake said dryly. “It’s not your shade.”

  Ignacio grimaced. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it was yours.”

  “It is,” he said, unable to stop himself from staking his claim on Kara every chance he could find. “Every time I kiss it off her lips.”

  Ignacio did a search and handed Kara back her purse. “Hold your hands to your sides.”

  Blake pulled her tighter against him. “If you so much as think about touching her, that lipstick will be up your ass.”

  “Better her lipstick than Alvarez’s foot. She has to be searched.”

  “We’ll see about that.” Blake grabbed his phone and punched in Mendez’s number. It started to ring.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” Ignacio demanded.

  “Calling your uncle.”

  “Wait,” Ignacio bit out. “Hang up.”

  Blake let the phone ring. “Why?”

  “There’s a metal detector at the destination. We’ll use it.”

  “You better be on your way to meet Alvarez,” Mendez barked into the phone, answering the call.

  Blake eyed Ignacio. “Since your nephew and I just worked out our travel arrangements, we’re headed to see him.”

  “Make sure you are,” Mendez spat, and the line went dead.

  “Now what?” Blake asked, shoving his phone back onto his belt. He’d bet one of his balls, and he was as attached to both of them as he was to breathing, Kara had used that same drug she’d zapped him with on Kyle. He hoped like hell that she had some of it with her now. What he’d packed himself wasn’t going to make it through the detector.

  Ignacio motioned toward the boat. “All aboard.”

  Blake turned Kara toward the boat, keeping her so close her hip was pressed to his. “If you had any idea what I was thinking right now…” he murmured.

  “If you had any idea what I’m thinking right now…” she countered.

  “Where’s Kyle?”

  “Asleep.”

  Blake grunted. “Well, at least I won’t get shit from him about you pulling that crap on me anymore.”

  She laughed; a soft, delicate sound that reminded him how female and how breakable she really could be. How much she didn’t belong here. “He gave you a hard time?”

  “You have no idea,” Blake
assured her as they stopped at the edge of the boat and he glanced behind him to find Ignacio talking to the goons. He eyed yet another goon on the deck and all but growled at Kara. “I should throw you in the water and make you swim for it.”

  “If I go, you’re going with me.”

  “Only because I’d be afraid you’d drown.”

  She turned into him, pressing to her toes, her soft curves molded to his, her lips teasing his ear. “I won’t drown. I promise.”

  His chest tightened at a promise that had nothing to do with his promise to throw her overboard. He wrapped an arm around her and buried his face in her neck. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.” Ignacio’s heavy steps warned of his approach. “And neither will I.” If they survived this, he’d be damn sure to tie her up and keep her safe, and that was a promise she could bank on.

  He pulled back and motioned her forward. She glared at him, obviously reading between the lines, but Ignacio, with his men behind him, successfully ended their banter, stopping beside them. Kara stepped onto the boat, where another goon waited for them.

  Blake followed Kara on board with Ignacio on his heels and things went downhill from there. “You two go into the cabin below,” Ignacio ordered, stepping to Blake’s side.

  “Not a chance,” Blake said, all kinds of alarm bells going off.

  Blake could feel movement behind him, more people joining them on the boat. Ignacio crossed his arms in front of his chest. “You won’t be allowed to see your destination, plain and simple.”

  Going below deck with Ignacio above was beyond foolish. “We’ll ride on top.”

  He flicked a look at Kara. “She’s freezing and topside isn’t an option.”

  Blake was all about giving Kara his coat, but it was huge and heavy and he wasn’t so sure he wasn’t going to have her running here in a minute. “I’m claustrophobic,” she offered. “I’d rather be cold and topside.”

  “We have a schedule,” Ignacio said, his tone clipped. “Inside the cabin, both of you.”